The Pirates acquired Ji-Man Choi from the Rays in a trade yesterday, slotting him in as their first baseman for 2023. Ben Cherington, the general manager of Choi’s new club, passed along some information about Choi’s health to reporters today. Per Justice delos Santos of MLB.com, Choi will undergo a minor procedure for his right elbow in Korea but is expected to be recovered in time for Spring Training. “Based on the total information we have, we feel good about him going into next year,” Cherington said, per Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic.
delos Santos notes that Choi dealt with an elbow injury during the 2022 season, which was back towards the beginning of the year. He was placed on the IL on May 1, retroactive to April 28, due to loose bodies in his right elbow. He was able to return after a minimum stay on May 8 and avoided the IL for the remainder of the year.
Though Cherington didn’t provide many details, if the procedure is related to loose bodies, it’s likely not a huge concern. Alex Bregman underwent a procedure to remove loose bodies from his elbow in January of 2019 and was still expected to be ready by Opening Day. That indeed came to pass, as Bregman didn’t miss any time in the regular season, getting into 156 games, and went on to have an excellent campaign. Each player and individual injury are unique, of course, but if Choi’s case is at all similar to Bregman’s, he has plenty of lead time to get healthy before next year.
Overall, he hit .233/.341/.388 in 2022 for a wRC+ of 115. He was much better prior to the IL stint, hitting .357/.491/.595 against a .217/.320/.360 line afterwards. It’s possible the arrival of the elbow issues had an impact, though that pre-IL line is just a 15-game sample and the latter section is still above average, producing a wRC+ of 101.
If the procedure helps Choi’s production take a step forward in 2023, the Pirates would surely welcome it. They are not expected to be competitive next year due to their ongoing rebuild and will likely be looking to trade Choi at the deadline since he’s an impending free agent. If he can come back from the offseason with any kind of improvement, it could help them to scoop up an interesting prospect or two when July rolls around.
Love the mystery surgery, incredible
You mean the mystery rebuild?
Gee, man. It must have been a difficult Choi(ce) for him to go under the knife.
Definitely worth the risk. Hope his recovery is speedy and he’s ready to go for Spring Training.
Adding Choi and Andujar to the lineup certainly can’t hurt.
Agreed. Both are much better options than random minor league utility infielders.
Would love a catcher and a DH now.
Typical Pirate dysfunction. Trade for a player who’s having surgery and while they claim he’ll be ready by spring training, there aren’t any guarantees that will happen
And his below batting average and high strikeouts will mesh easily with the other position players
Nice job, Ben!
No guarantee was made. No guarantees for any player will be ready for spring training. There are always players getting different joints scopes to clean crap out,of them every off-season and show up on time for spring training. That is why they say that he is expected to be ready and not guaranteed to be,ready. for spring training
Speaking of Korean players is that kbo vs MLB series happening this weekend???
when the hell did a .217 batting avg become acceptable? the obp may be somewhat acceptable but the batting avg sure isn’t
About 20 years ago.
For low end shortstops. For others, the last few years. When BA went out of style. Call it the Gallo era.
If you follow the Rays, he was mashing and then…..crap. A better than 50/50 chance that his elbow kept him from getting to the high fastball, which led to him to start feeling for the ball. That is…..if you followed the Rays like myself. No one said….ever…that .217 is acceptable unless you’re an on base machine with pop. He wasn’t.
Maybe Choi was not an OBP machine, but his .341 OBP would have been the 2nd highest on the Pirates in 2022 (Reynolds OBP was .345). Also, the Pirates team OBP was .291 (28th). The Dodgers team OBP of .333 was the best in baseball. I’ll take Choi’s .341.
He’s also a good fielder, and even in a down year, put up a 114 OPS+. He’s not someone they’ll want to play every day, but he’s a solid addition.
If you need to ask when a .217 batting average became acceptable you must not follow baseball. You have a favourite team and not actual sport of baseball. Because for years batting averages have trended down and teams don’t really care about batting average.
The pirates had a equal at first but released him how dumb
If you’re thinking about Chavis, have you actually watched him? Check his OBP. If you’re thinking about the assortment of 1Bs that followed, I don’t know what to say.
Loose bodies. Always a risk in Tampa when going out at night.
This is a move with the Rays and Pirates involved you fully know what will happen to Choi next season, more regression or maybe not playing at all.
Still, extremely low risk with potentially nice reward.
Didn’t the Rays send a pitcher to the Pirates previously and we found out later that he needed surgery which could explain his ineffectiveness? Why take a chance on a player when there are plenty of healthy ones available?
Don’t recall that ever happening. How do you know they are healthy? If the pirates medical team is so incompetent you can’t trust them to evaluate Choi who’s to say they can evaluate anyone?
It’s only November, and we can begin building our “Players Most Likely to Be Gone at the Trade Deadline List”. It’s become a neat hobby, one which we should throw $20 in here and have a pool. This guy. Andujar. This is what it means to be a Pirates fan
Raise the Jolly Roger
How do Pirates fans like Henry Davis so far? He played 59 games and then went to the AZFL where he did well.