The SSG Landers of the Korea Baseball Organization have signed former Mariners, Blue Jays and Royals right-hander Sam Gaviglio for the remainder of the season, the team announced (hat tip: Jee-ho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, on Twitter). The KVA Sports client was on a minor league deal with the Rangers, who have announced the sale of his contract to the Landers. Gaviglio will earn a $246K salary in addition to a $100K signing bonus, per Yoo.
Gaviglio, 31, had tossed 26 1/3 innings in Triple-A Round Rock while awaiting a big league opportunity in Texas, but he’ll now take a guaranteed six-figure payday for a bit more than a half season’s work to close out the 2021 campaign. The move overseas also serves as something of an audition for him; if he throws well with the Landers, he could very well earn an offer to return in 2022 or generate interest elsewhere in the KBO or Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. A strong performance could also earn him another look back with a big league club.
A fifth-rounder by the Cardinals back in 2011, Gaviglio made his MLB debut with the 2017 Mariners. He spent parts of the next four seasons in the big leagues, tallying a combined total of 296 2/3 innings and pitching to a 4.88 ERA with a 19.1 percent strikeout rate and a 7.2 percent walk rate.
Gaviglio has worked as both a starter and a reliever in the Majors, but he appears ticketed for the Landers’ rotation. Yoo notes that he’ll be taking the roster spot of right-hander Artie Lewicki, who started four games for the Landers before a pectoral injury sidelined him for the foreseeable future.
Id have taken that deal too!
Gaviglio makes more sense to me than Lewicki ever did.
That said, I would have tried to acquire one of Jose De Paula or Teddy Stankiewicz instead.
Good for him, I wish him the best. I enjoyed his time with the Jays. Back in 2019 he really looked like he was breaking out as a pitcher, but it fell apart late in May.