The Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization have agreed to deals with left-hander Ryan Carpenter, and right-hander Nick Kingham. (Hat tips to the CPBL Stats website and Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net.) Both pitchers will receive a $100K signing bonus, while Carpenter will receive $300K salary and another potential $100K in incentives, and Kingham gets a $250K salary and $200K in incentives.
Both pitchers will be spending a second season overseas. Carpenter pitched for the Rakuten Monkeys of the Chinese Professional Baseball League in 2020, and Kingham will remain in the KBO League after an injury-shortened season with SK Wyverns.
A veteran of 15 games with the Tigers in 2018-19, Carpenter posted an 8.57 ERA, 2.35 K/BB rate, and 5.7 K/9 over his 63 Major League innings. After inking a deal with the Monkeys last January, Carpenter performed well in his first CPBL season, delivering a 4.00 ERA, 4.55 K/BB rate, and 8.6 K/9 over 157 1/3 innings, starting 25 of his 26 appearances.
Kingham suffered an elbow injury that ended his stint with the Wyverns after only two starts (and a 6.75 ERA), as he was released in July. It wasn’t the first time that elbow problems have impacted Kingham’s career, as his development as a top-100 ranked prospect in the Pirates’ farm system was curtailed by Tommy John surgery in 2015. Though he still showed some flashes of his old form at the minor league level, Kingham managed only a 6.08 ERA over 131 2/3 career MLB innings with the Pirates and Blue Jays in 2018-19.
Carpenter is a good choice for Hanuwa although his flyball tendencies aren’t great and Kingham could be a good choice if he is healthy.
Carpenter couldnt even pitch below a 4.00 ERA in the CPBL. i dont know how he wolnt get eaten alive in the KBO.
The CPBL is worse than the KBO but the CPBL is also considerably more hitter friendly so Carpenter should be able to have a similar ERA due to fewer home runs and in spite of slightly worse K/BB rates
Both are still making a lot more dough than most of us. Beats flipping burgers or cleaning hotel rooms for a living.