Dodgers To Sign Top Korean Pitching Prospect Hyun-Seok Jang
The Dodgers have agreed to terms with South Korean right-hander Hyun-seok Jang, his agency in South Korea announced (link via Jee-ho Yoo of the Yonhap News Agency). It’s a $900K signing bonus for the 19-year-old Jang, who is forgoing the KBO amateur draft to pursue MLB opportunities. Yoo notes that Jang was widely expected to be the top pick in this year’s KBO draft. Daniel Kim first reported that the two parties were nearing an agreement.
The signing of Jang likely would not have been possible were it not for last week’s trade with the White Sox, which saw the Dodgers ship a pair of minor leaguers — Aldrin Batista and Maximo Martinez — to Chicago in exchange for additional space in their international bonus pool. The Dodgers’ $4,144,000 pool for the 2023 signing period tied the Rangers for the smallest league-allotted pool. And, as Baseball America’s Ben Badler outlined in detail this past spring, Los Angeles used the overwhelming majority of that pool (all but $1500 of it) on shortstop Joendry Vargas, outfielder Arnaldo Lantigua, right-hander Jesus Tillero, shortstop Daniel Mielcarek, catcher/outfielder Eduardo Quintero, shortstop Elias Medina and right-hander Samuel Sanchez.
The collective bargaining agreement, however, allows teams to trade international bonus pool space. Any team can acquire additional space totaling up to 60% of its initial league-allotted pool size. After their initial signing spree when the period opened, Badler noted that the White Sox still had more than $1MM remaining in pool space. That set the stage for them to either sign additional talents down the line or, as they ultimately wound up doing, trade some of that remaining pool space.
Jang, listed at 6’2″ and 198 pounds, has allowed one run with a 42-to-14 K/BB ratio in 27 1/3 innings during his final high school season and was recently the only amateur named to the South Korean National Team, per Yoo. He’s already reached 97 mph on his fastball and will add a power arm — albeit one that is likely years from realistically making an MLB impact — to the lower levels of the Dodgers’ perennially strong farm system.
Bonus Pools For 2023 International Signing Market
The 2023 international signing period opens on January 15, as the new collective bargaining agreement has formalized the mid-January start date that has been in place for the last two years. Previously opening on July 2 in pre-pandemic years, the 2020-21 int’l signing period was moved to January 2021 once COVID-19 overhauled the baseball calendar, and for at least the length of the current CBA, the international signing window will last from January 15 to December 15 of each year.
Because the MLB Players Association continued to resist the league’s desires for an international draft system, the previous rules regarding international signings remain in place. All 30 teams have a set bonus pool for international signings that cannot be exceeded, though signing of $10K or less don’t count against a team’s pool cap. Clubs are once again allowed to trade bonus pool slots, as trades of pool money had been prohibited in the last two pandemic-impacted draft pool classes.
Here is what each team has available to spend in the new int’l signing window, with a tip of the hat to MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez:
$6,366,900: Athletics, Brewers, Mariners, Marlins, Rays, Reds, Tigers, Twins …..These were the teams who had picks in Competitive Balance Round-B of the 2022 draft.
$5,825,500: Diamondbacks, Guardians, Orioles, Padres, Pirates, Rockies, Royals …..These teams had picks in Competitive Balance Round-A of the 2022 draft.
$5,284,000: Astros, Blue Jays, Braves, Cardinals, Cubs, Giants, Mets, Nationals, White Sox, Yankees
$4,644,000: Angels, Phillies, Red Sox…..Each of these teams surrendered $500K from their bonus pools because they signed a qualifying offer-rejecting free agent in the 2021-22 offseason. Los Angeles signed Noah Syndergaard, Philadelphia signed Nick Castellanos, and Boston signed Trevor Story.
$4,144,000: Dodgers, Rangers…..These teams also signed QO-rejecting free agents during the 2021-22 offseason, as Texas took $500K penalties for both Marcus Semien and Corey Seager. Los Angeles had to give up $1MM from its pool in order to sign Freddie Freeman, as the Dodgers received double the penalty because they exceeded the luxury tax threshold in 2021.