The Kiwoom Heroes of the Korea Baseball Organization have acquired first baseman Will Craig (hat tip to reporters Sung Min Kim and The Yonhap News’ Jeeho Yoo). Craig will earn $371K for the remainder of the KBO season according to Yoo, while MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports a $425K salary.
Craig was most recently a member of the Pirates, and GM Ben Cherington said over the weekend that Craig had been given permission to look into opportunities with Asian teams. Pittsburgh has designated Craig for assignment and outrighted him off its 40-man roster twice, with the most recent outright assignment coming last month.
Craig has spent his entire professional career with the Pirates, beginning after the Bucs selected him with the 22nd overall pick of the 2016 draft. He has a .261/.351/.421 slash line over 2060 career plate appearances in the minor leagues, mostly playing first baseman but also getting some as a third baseman and right fielder. After being selected for Pittsburgh’s alternate training site in 2020, Craig made his MLB debut with two games last season, and then appeared in 18 games for the Pirates this year.
In 69 PA in the majors, Craig has hit .203/.261/.281 with one home run (in his first game of the 2021 season). Unfortunately for Craig, his most famous moment as a big leaguer was a uniquely memorable fielding error against the Cubs this season, when he engaged in a rundown with batter Javier Baez between first base and home plate rather than just step on first base to retire Baez on a routine grounder.
As noted by Kim, Craig will replace David Freitas as the foreign-born position player on the Heroes roster. Freitas was placed on waivers by the Seoul-based team last month.
I hope they limit him to DH, just to be on the safe side.
Craig is actually a very good defender at first base, multiple minor league gold gloves. The Baez play was just a really bad mental error.
Don’t let facts get in the way of a good narrative.
Says Steve (the guy with the ego the size of) Nebraska
Theres a quote in the article about how haunted he is for the play and its one of the most heartbreaking paragraphs Ive read in a baseball article. I hope this dude finds redemption, he’s worked his whole life to be top 0.00001% in a competitive field and 7 seconds of exaggerated blunder are going to be the thing he’s known for.
Godspeed Will, I hope you find peace and a couple 30/120 seasons.
you are so right. shows how the so called experts at reporting sports are nothing but headline grabbers. like the beatles song goes LET IT BE
he is also a relief pitcher. was a two way pitcher in college i think also the previous front office flirted with the idea and gave him some time with the pitching staff but i don’t think he ever pitched in a live game once he became pro.
Good for him. I have a feeling hes going to be one of those guys back in the MLB in a few years doing well.
Good for him. Better to play in a country that doesn’t feel the need to make one embarrassing moment the story of his entire career.
Great point, I am still in shock on how quickly his MLB career opportunities vanished after that. With that said, I am still in shock over that play.
Cherington is cleaning house all of Huntington’s bad draft picks. It really has nothing to do with the Baez play.
Is there anything that doesn’t shock you, Ully?
Shockingly no
Lloyd lol
If he had hit at all that moment would be a blip. He was bad before the slip, he was bad after.
I’m sure we’ve all had case of brain fade at some point in our lives. Stuff happens sometimes.
Will Craig ever live it down??
Bill Buckner says hi…….and HE was a pretty good player….
Yep typical of American sports writers and so called experts. They are only looking to sell their product
The “Big Lebowski” John Nogowski has made him expendable.
He’s the Big Nogowski!
One play cost him his MLB career and to move 5000 miles away
I mean to be fair, if he had hit even remotely close to MLB average, then he’d probably be on an MLB roster. That play didn’t help him out, but having an OPS+ of 59 probably hurt his case a little more
If Ke’Bryan Hayes made that exact play (yes I know he doesn’t play first base) he’s still wearing a Pirate uniform. Craig is not in the MLB because of his performance, not just one play (although that play still amazes me…wow).
He had one of the worst plays in history I get it but was it that bad (as of now) to end his MLB career?
No…he isn’t much of a hitter.
A 25 y/o (26 in Nov) .776 career-OPS in MiLB at a position (1B) where you need an above-average bat to play in an organization with new management trying their best to get out from under the franchise joke label (though I wouldn’t consider them a joke). Craig deserves more of a shot in this fickle game, but don’t make him out to be Moonlight Graham.
He wouldn’t be the least talented to recreate themselves over there only to reemerge.
As a Pirate fan, I can’t even name the last above-average bat to play 1B in that uniform. No Josh Bell’s ungodly 140-160 ABs two years ago don’t count.
He’s continued to increase his ISO every year and had cut his strikeout rate down in AAA to 20% so he should do well in the KBO.
The start of the next house cleaning. They respected him enough to allow him to find a home in Asia before they would have released him in the next 2 weeks anyway. They obviously tried to find a trade partner both times that they DFA”d him twice this year and no takers either by someone claiming a cheap contract or a taker by trade. There will be MiLB roster spots needed in the next couple of weeks after the draft picks sign and trades being made for Frazier, RichRod and a couple of others. In Craig’s case, he has not hit enough to keep his spot and Mason Martin will be moved up to take his place within the next two weeks. There will be 4-5 AA guys moving up and the dominos falling in behind in the levels below. Spots needed and there will be several other guys going to the far east or released.
Good Wil Craig Luck Hunting.
Maybe he can share a roster spot with Jung Ho Kang?
When one is a bust…on the Pittsburgh Pirates (honestly…how “good” does one truly have to be to make that team?)…and then has to go to the KBO to get a job?
Tells ya all ya need to know about his value.
Keep…cleaning…house…Cherington.
Maybe he will go there and be the next Leron Lee. (Though I seriously doubt it).
When he is 34, am sure he will make a Warren Cromartie-style/Wily Mo Pena-esque “return” to the MLB. (Probably on a team like Pittsburgh again. Or the Royals). Where he can strike out 50 times in 100 at bats and hit 3 HRS.).
Yet another…in a long string of wasted time draft picks.
Pirates have needed ARMS and CATCHERS..
only for 40 years. (And they drafted someone like this? Why? Cheap. That’s why. “Well, he hit good…in High School,with a metal bat…off of 80 mph dead red fastballs”. This is their modus operandi, or WAS…until Cherington (wisely, I might add) FINALLY drafted…a Catcher. Bout time).
Can’t afford the arm? Then get the catcher.
They have (since Doe Boyland) had an endless conga line of draft picks wasted on 1B and OF. And this is why they stink.
Even when the Pirates do win? They do it with minimal pitching. Minimal.
Until this team has a glut of arms and catchers at its disposal…all up and down the line from Rookie A to AAA…then they will forever be: dead last.
Davis is a start. It is a directional change (long overdue like a library book you find in your attic that you took out in 1983 and forgot to return).
But they are still 7 pieces short of a lineup.
And 5 pitchers short of even being “Cleveland”.
Long way to go Ben C.
But unloading this scrub and signing Davis? Is a definite light at the end of a tunnel that is longer than the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.
Adios Wil.
Now? Let the Pittspublishers Clearing House Sale…begin.
All…must…go. (keep Reynolds. Keep Hayes.) All others? Gone.
You can lose 100 games with them or a 100 games without em.
Get…ARMS.
And forget the Wil Craig types.
They are only good for one thing.
Jobs in the KBO. (Which is about the equivalent of the metal bat/80 mph speed that Wil teed off in…in High School).
Pittsburgh needs arms. Miles and miles of em. They are at “square one”. Like being on “Baltic Avenue” of a Monopoly Board.
Until they have at least 3 arms of note to display? They won’t even be at “St. Charles Place”. (Forget Park Place. That isn’t happening until 2026…at the earliest…in a long shot “chance in the dark scenario”).
But getting rid of this scrub? Is a start.
And drop the mic…
Dropped my brother.
Like Axl Rose at Red Rocks.
Mix is dropped for thou, good sir
Am I the only one that gave up on this rant by the Wily Mo Pena reference?
No. You’re not.
And If you truly want “a rant”…I can happily give ya that.
Or…you can read posts that are more than “1 sentence pick up lines that one would give some hag on POF”.
There is wisdom, within words.
Learn them.
Why-Did BP mention Wily Mo?
I did not get that far.BP went for a snooze the last couple of days.He needs to take long naps to maintain his strenuous vitriolic activity.
I missed his vitriol.NOT.
BP is a fairly knowledgeable poster and probably not a bad guy,but he definitely is starved for attention.
Welcome back BP.
BP-I just have to be able to read posts that I want to read and that give me informative opinions.
I have no time for trolls.They are not informative.
You are not a troll.I have been here five years,though,and have seen many vitriolics who just flame out and move on.
Unless you are getting paid per word,that will happen to you too.
Hes getting paid. hes the biggest idiot there is.
Everything wrong about this rant: Kang is actually retired. Craig probably won’t be there that long unless he goes to an NPB team and does well after doing well with a KBO team first. Craig and his ilk are the type of player teams should try to draft cheaper and eventually sell off to KBO and NPB teams (maybe even CPBL) for cash. The KBO is just above AA so you’re understating how good the KBO is.
Just above AA is the KBO?
Right where Craig belongs.
Everything “wrong” is of Wil Craig’s doing”.
His alone.
I stand by my words. Craig couldn’t keep a job…with the PIRATES.
Nuff said.
Thank god for the mute button
Go slither back in your hole
1) Will Craig is currently having his best offensive season in the minors. Sure he’s repeating AAA but he used to go through stretches of either hitting for average or hitting for power but this year things are kinda coming together for him on both fronts.
2) Offensive production from first basemen across all of baseball is probably as low as its been since the ’80s.
3) What John Nogowski is doing is great but there’s probably gonna be some regression coming when opposing pitchers and coaching staffs have enough data on him to figure out his tendencies and holes in his swing.
4) I hope Craig owns the burden of never being able to live down that Baez play and realizes that for better or worse hundreds of thousands, if not more, fans will always remember his name but at the same time over the course of MLB history tens of thousands, if not more, players have already long been forgotten.
Best of luck to Craig in the KBO and hope he comes back to the Pirates when he makes it back in the states in a couple years, unless Mason Martin is tearing the cover off the ball in Pittsburgh.
Agree there. For the most part.
Except at least Nogowski (who is a flash in the pan) hits the ball
…where it is pitched.
Good for him.
He’ll be off this thing Pittsburgh calls a team in no time.
Cause he (in the long run) isn’t needed there anyway.
But the kid puts the bat ON the ball.
Unlike Wil Craig…Nogowski knows his days are numbered as a MLB level “quasi-hitter”.
So may as well make the best of it while it lasts.
But he too? Is GONEZO…very soon
More he does now? May be an extra arm in a package deal.
The Pirates have 2 players. Maybe 3 if you count Castro…who is ONLY 22 and needs to play every single day/every single inning.
Pirates do not need 27 year old never wases/never will bes.
They need 100 20 to 21 year Olds who can pitch and catch. And work as one towards 2026
Jimmy-Nogowski was hitting 522 through his first six games with the Pirates.
I do not think that there is any “ probably” in expected regression.
But maybe he is a pretty good hitter who just deserved a chance.
The question becomes what do they do with Moran when he comes back as he has become a pretty good hitter.
Hope they find room to keep them both, maybe a platoon at 1B. Can Nogowski play a corner OF? Can he be much worse defensively than Evans or Polanco?
With all due respect to Mr Nogowski,he does not seem to be built like anything but a first baseman or DH.
In fact,he reminded me a little of Will Craig.
He’s never become what the Pirates envisioned, but there’s no reason he can’t go to the KBO, play well, and then return to the States if he wants and succeed. I wish him well.
Totally agree Monkeys Uncle.
So long as (when he returns to the States) he misses Pennsylvania entirely and lands in Washington (Seattle) or Kansas City or Houston.
Anywhere…for a 34 year old…but Pittsburgh.
They have had more than their “fill” of this type.
Good luck Wil.
Don’t let the Fort Pitt Bridge hit ya on the way…out.
(And remember. Always. You STEP ON 1B. Don’t forget the fundamentals….as Pittsburgh doesn’t teach those. So it is all good. But ya forgot it…here. so no, by the time you “remember em again…you will be 33” and Pirates won’t need that.
But good fortune sir.
“Step on 1B.” (Remind thyself endlessly)
That mute options is looking good right now. You flood each page with rants and have nothing to offer to the article. Craig did have one “unforgettable and fundamental relapse” but did fairly well in the minors. He never received enough reps in the majors to know if he was a bust. I believe old and new front office counted this guy out a long time ago. I wish him the best in the KBO and returns to the states (hopefully Mil, Cincy, or even St Louis) next year. Just so when he crushes the ball (minor league stats show he produced at the plate and defensively) and the Pirates will see that they gave up on another prospect too soon. Hence Meadows, Glasnow……
On the plus side, somewhere a street corner has more room for pedestrians.
Kinda of a fast pull the plug for a first rounder on a team that is supposedly starting a rebuild. I believe he will rake in KBO which is probably a level between AA and AAA. He’ll make it back to the show in 23 or 24 if he hits there. At his age there will be a lot of off field opportunities for a man in his prime in Korea. Great opportunity!
The Heroes is dope this year. Better than the TokoyoHellTurtles
Darin Ruf also couldn’t stick with his initial MLB team (the Phillies) and headed to the Korean League. In 3 seasons with Samsung Ruf had OPS totals of .965, 1.024 and .911. He returned to MLB with the Giants in 2020 with a respectable .887 OPS, and so far in 2021 playing 1b and the outfield Ruf has accumulated an OPS of .959 playing as a very important piece of the team with the best record in MLB. If you are writing Craig off due to his production in MLB thus far, or due to his decision to play in Korea, you aren’t being very smart. You are just guessing. Good luck to Craig in Korea, hopefully he finds his way back to the bigs.
I am familiar with both Ruf and Craig.I always thought that the Pirates should have given Craig more of a chance,but they had Josh Bell and then Moran.Craig never hit quite well enough in the minors to be a bona fide prospect.He may very well do well in Korea,and I hope that he does.
I also do not think that Ruf was given a full chance in Philadelphia.He hit sporadically and was not a good outfielder.He was given several chances to do so,but never quite peaked for a consistent time.The problem with some of these guys is that they need a second chance,and some mature later than others.A mark of a good GM is picking up these type of players on the margins.If the Phillies would have stuck with him a little longer he may have matured more quickly to the hitter that he seems to be today.
Most hitters in MLB require about 1500 at bats before they reach a comfort zone at the plate. There are exceptions, but unless some teams have significant money invested in a player, they will have a short leash on prospects.
The more articles I read about Craig outside of mlbtraderumors.com regarding the “why’s” surrounding going to the KBO, the more I feel for him. It’s a sad situation, but hopefully he’ll get past this.