Brian O’Grady has signed with the Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization, tweets C. Trent Rosecrans of the Athletic. It’s a deal for up to $900K, with $700K in salary and $200K in incentives, according to Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News (Twitter link).
O’Grady got brief looks in the big leagues each season from 2019-21. A former Reds draftee, he played in the Cincinnati system for a half-decade and earned an MLB debut with the Reds in ’19. O’Grady appeared in 28 contests for Cincinnati before being dealt to the Rays the following offseason. The lefty-hitting corner outfielder suited up just twice with Tampa Bay in the shortened 2020 campaign and was outrighted off the roster over the 2020-21 winter. He signed an MLB contract with the Padres and suited up a personal-high 32 times for the Friars the next season.
Between the three clubs, O’Grady managed just a .184/.283/.388 line in 114 MLB plate appearances. He’d hit at an excellent .284/.362/.551 clip through parts of three Triple-A campaigns, though, and that strong upper minors work caught the attention of evaluators in Japan. The Rutgers product inked a deal with the Seibu Lions in Nippon Professional Baseball last offseason. He tallied 465 trips to the plate but didn’t perform as the club had hoped offensively, putting up a .213/.312/.384 line with 15 home runs. O’Grady walked at a quality 11.6% clip but struck out in 27.7% of plate appearances for the Lions.
The Eagles will take a shot on a rebound season, betting on O’Grady’s power and plate discipline. His strong minor league track record gives reason for optimism as he heads to South Korea for the first time. The Philadelphia native turns 31 in May and could eventually look for a return to the affiliated ranks if he performs well in the KBO. For now, he’ll look to help an Eagles team that went just 46-96 this year to bounce back from a last-place finish.
Cue Ben and Woods…top o the mornin to ya. Haha, wish him the best of luck. Stand up guy!
Who signs with who?
I thought it was MLB Rumors?
It’s actually MLB “trade” rumors so by that logic they shouldn’t post any free agent stuff either. I enjoy the NPB and KBO information and it generally has to do with current or former MLB players so I find it relevant. Some of you guys just get off on being negative… and yes, I get that’s part of any comment section anywhere.
Honestly this site should just be a bunch of degens posting their outlandish theories about potential trades.
Have you read many post on here? Your sarcasm is refreshing…
Gotta change his first name to Brady.
Another outfielder off the board. Conforto running out of time.
I remember Grady from Sanford and Son. Whitman Mayo was the best.
O Grady blocked me on twitter
He would get mad at a few of us when he would come to the plate we would yell, “O’Grady, ya hit like a lady!” In our worst Irish accent.
It was a real hit with all the ladies in the crowd, said none of them…ever!
Haha, well I remember someone said “bring O’Grady back so we can see what he can do!”
So I said “well we know what HE CAN’T do, hit a baseball” then he and his wife blocked me
You shouldn’t have been pestering him with autograph requests!
I’m skeptical of future success in the KBO but I would have said that about Jose Pirela before he went to the KBO after a bad season in NPB.
Have fun playing in Daejeon. Seriously, it’s the most boring city in Korea.
MLBTR’s, all the censoring of innocuous posts tonight was truly shameful. I have never seen anything like it in my life. Utterly disgusting! It was like a little kid was sitting behind the screen just pressing CENSOR till their hearts content. And then you shut the whole Bauer thread down? How dare you guys…Very bad move on your part. You can’t do things like that…Hope someone gets canned over this. Certainly Tim couldn’t have given the OK for you guys to do what you did tonight. Whoever is responsible is a real gutless mutt!
Allowing the comments on the Bauer post to be open for several hours was an oversight on my part. I apologize for failing to close those comments more quickly. Per our April 2021 commenting policy, we don’t allow comments on domestic violence posts:
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/04/upcoming-changes-to-mlbtr-commenting-policy.html