Korean outfielder Jae-Hwan Kim‘s posting deadline has come and gone without a contract with a Major League club, according to Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News (Twitter link). As such, Kim will return to the KBO League’s Doosan Bears for the 2020 season, and he isn’t eligible to be posted again until November.
After being officially posted on December 6, Kim had until 4pm CT today to work out a deal with an MLB team. Kim’s agency tells Yoo that four Major League clubs had discussions about the outfielder’s services, though the Marlins were the only team publicly known to have interest in Kim, and even that interest may have waned after Corey Dickerson was signed. It’s possible that clubs weren’t comfortable signing a player they knew relatively little about, as Yoo wrote in another piece earlier this week that “Kim came out of blue to enter the open market via posting, which left surprised major league scouts without detailed reports on the player that they could send to their clubs.”
It isn’t known if Kim will again attempt a jump to North American baseball after the 2020 season, when he’ll be 32 years old. Regardless if Kim’s future focus is on the Bears or the big leagues, he’ll certainly look to improve on his 115 home runs and .283/.362/.434 slash line over 574 plate appearances last season. While a respectable performance on paper, it represents a modest showing in the hitter-friendly KBO League, and a big step down from the 116 homers and 1.000+ OPS totals Kim posted from 2016-18.
gonna be hard to improve on 115 HR
It’s a hitter’s league.
Pretty sure no league is THAT hitter friendly.
Article indicates the 115 number is the composite total from 2015 through 2018, a period of four seasons.
116 = 29 per year average.
My bad too. 115 is a typo. Next line mentions the 116 cumulation for the four previous years.
3 years so 39/year
Looks like some bad editing in this article. I clicked on the players link it says 15 homeruns for 2019…..
*15hr last season
Anyone here play Baseball Stars for NES?
Used to love that game as a kid…can’t get that game music out of my head
Yeah that’s actually what got me thinking about it. Randomly the “runners in scoring position” music was in my head. DUN DUN DUNDUN DUN DUN DUNDUN DUNDUN DUDUNDUN DUN DUN DUN DUNNUN
Extra innings was also a great game
While baseball stars was ahead of its time when it came to pioneering rosters, GM functions and created players, extra innings was one of the first games I could recall in which you had specific control over the player with sliding and diving catches
Rbi baseball was my favorite. Triple play was decent too
I don’t think someone coming off of a 115 HR season would be unknown to MLB scouts
115 home runs?!?
how is any player in the NPB or KBO an unknown in the internet era, especially one who might have been the KBO’s best hitter from 2016-18?
Uh, yea. What do they have? 10 teams?
8 teams?
115 HR in 574 plate appearances? What a down year. No wonder nobody wanted him.
If he had just hit .300… Lol
Contract year in the wrong year…..
Insert generic joke about 115 home run typo in article…pretending to be original
but the 115 HR typo tho.
This comment is even more cringe.
My create a player on rookie mode after getting called up in July
Ha!
I haven’t see that any home runs in a season since Domingo Ayala hit 145. He did it in only 154 games though.
When MLB players careers start to wind down and they’re just about at the end of their rope they go to the KBO, like Adam Jones. Not sure why Kim’s posting team thought MLB would take their sloppy seconds when MLB has been in a youth movement for the last 5 years?