The LG Twins of the Korea Baseball Organization are close to signing left-hander Andrew Suarez to a one-year contract, according to Daniel Kim of ESPN and DKTV (Twitter link). It’ll be a $600K pact, Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News tweets. The deal would have to be tied into a purchase of Suarez’s rights from the Giants, as Suarez is still controlled by the San Francisco club.
Suarez was a second-round pick for the Giants in the 2015 and seemed to be emerging as a rotation candidate during a 2018 rookie season that saw him post a 4.49 ERA, 2.89 K/BB rate, and 7.3 K/9 over 160 1/3 innings. That debut was followed up, however, with only 32 2/3 frames of big league work in 2019 (at a 5.79 ERA), as well as some unimpressive numbers at Triple-A, albeit in the very hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. This past season, Suarez made several trips back and forth from the Giants’ alternate training site to the active roster, posting a 3.72 ERA over 9 2/3 innings of relief work, but with more walks (six) than strikeouts (five).
Since Suarez is out of minor league options and seemed to becoming an afterthought in San Francisco, it isn’t surprising that he and his representatives explored opportunities elsewhere. Pitching in the KBO League would allow the left-hander to both earn more money than he would have as a pre-arbitration player in the big leagues, and also presumably give him a chance to start games and re-build his value. Suarez only turned 28 last September, so there is plenty of time for a potential future return to North American baseball.
Good luck in Korea.
Maybe you can be a starter there.
With MLB taking over (for lack of a better term) MiLB, could there be potential for a development agreement with the KBO? Don’t have data to back it up, but feel like there has been a significant increase in KBO players lately (relative to a decade or so ago).
Anyone have thoughts?
I feel like either independent leagues here (if they can make any money) or foreign leagues will have the potential to take more American players who are on the young side and still want to play. We’ll see.
First, KBO would have to allow more foreign players on their teams and I bet they are not inclined to do so, because that would mean less Korean-born players in the league.
Secondly, don’t see why you’d want your prospects batting overseas especially since the whole MiLB overhaul was partly motivated of bringing prospects closer to their MLB home.
Thirdly, MLB teams already are making agreements overseas. Several teams have been sending quite some prospects to Australia.
Fourth, if you send your prospects to KBO, ABL, NPB…you have little to no control over their development or what they are doing over there.
If he goes to KBO, Giants lose rights to him.
Wow! Way more of a response than expected. Did not realize agreements were already in place internationally – thanks for sharing!
Suarez rights being lost (as anti belt mentioned) spurred the thought of development agreement to avoid rights loss.
Always liked Suarez. Was disappointed he wasn’t given much of a chance to start on a consistent basis. He was pretty decent in 2018.
soft tosser, just flipping up bp…
i think this guy could break out with a consistent starting chance
why only cover the east coast sports
Another reminder of how poorly the giants have developed pitching in the last 10 years. After such an impressive run of developing guys like Cain, Lincecum, Bumgarner, the pitching well sure has dried out. That’s as much to blame if not more so for the lack of success over the last 4 years.
Also has to do with their draft strategy. They’ve been recently leaning more and more towards drafting hitters in early rounds and spending cash on FA starters.
Suarez should be a very good replacement for Tyler Wilson
Good for him. LG is a fun club with some upside.
I think somebody got mixed up. I think this is regarding former Giant Albert Suarez, not Andrew Suarez. Albert Suarez pitched in Japan last year. Andrew is on the Giants 40 man roster and still has upside potential plus has one option left according to Roster Resource. The Giants would not let Andrew go for nothing with their huge lack of starting pitching. I’d be surprised if this posting is accurate.
It’s possible since back in the 2017 offseason the Seattle Mariners let Andrew Albers go to sign with the Orix Buffaloes despite having a lack of rotation depth.
Someone said Andrew Suarez is a soft tosser. In fact he sits at 93 and easily touches 94-95. Not bad for a lefty swingman. I’ve always liked Andrew. It would be ashamed to lose him. fangraphs.com/players/andrew-suarez/18300/graphs?p…
Keep him!
At least through ST if there is one.
If one of FZ’s dumpster dives is better, then, decide.