Right-hander Adam Plutko is eyeing a return to the Major Leagues after a strong two-year stint in the Korea Baseball Organization, tweets Jon Heyman of the New York Post. The 32-year-old hurler landed with the 2023 KBO champion LG Twins after a largely nondescript five-year run between Cleveland and Baltimore and has found plenty of success pitching overseas.
In two seasons with the KBO’s Twins, Plutko has pitched to a 2.40 ERA in 285 1/3 innings. He’s still not a prolific strikeout arm, fanning just 21.7% of his opponents, but Plutko sports a sharp 6% walk rate and a solid 46% ground-ball rate during his time overseas. That’s a marked increase over his MLB numbers; from 2016-21 he logged 273 2/3 innings between the Indians and Orioles, recording a 5.39 ERA, 17% strikeout rate, 7.2% walk rate and 28.8% ground-ball rate — primarily working as a fifth/sixth starter with Cleveland.
Given his age, Plutko isn’t likely to command particularly long-term interest if MLB clubs are intrigued to roll the dice and see what he can bring to the table in a return affair. But he’s a year younger than Josh Lindblom was when he signed with the Brewers out of South Korea (three years, $9.125MM) and two years younger than Drew Rucinski was last year when he signed with the A’s following a successful KBO run of his own (one year, $3MM).
A low-cost deal for one or two years doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility. Even if guaranteed rotation spots are tough to come by, Plutko could be targeted by clubs looking for an affordable swingman to serve as a sixth or seventh starter in the inevitable event that injuries thin out their more prominent rotation options. With 51 career relief outings in the Majors, Plutko is no stranger to being a long man in the bullpen.
First Erick Fedde and now him, why are so many “bad” pitchers going to Korea and putting up great numbers there? It can’t be easier competition, are they that good at developing pitching there?
I think the fact that Lindblom and Rucinski were both awful when returning to MLB speaks volumes about the standard of play in the KBO.
I’ll give Rucinski a pass because he was injured before the season even started and never managed to get himself in pitching shape but Lindblom was shockingly awful coming off insane KBO numbers.
I’ve been wondering that myself z. Generally speaking, I don’t feel like the competition is as good as mlb. And maybe those good results boost a guy’s confidence. I mean, they’re always talking about the mental side of the game, so there could be something to that.
I have heard that Japan/Cuba are similar to AAA level in the US, while South Korea is similar to AA. It is definitely easier competition.
Cuba could’ve been a loooooong time ago, not anymore , as for Japan I’ll say is a AAA+ because look at how well they’ve performed as a collective in WBC
I think the “maximum effort” approach that MLB teams demand of most prospects and group-think fixation on only “big arms” undermines the more nuanced approach necessary to develop softer-throwing mid- to back-of-the-rotation pitchers.
According to a Baseball America scouting report from earlier in his career, “Plutko’s fastball sits around 90 mph but he can run it up to 94. Even with fringe-average velocity, Plutko’s fastball plays up.”
The quality of competition in Korea is such that Plutko can throw low 90s and fine-tune his slider-breaking-ball mix in an environment that not only tolerates but rewards that kind of pitching.
Because the hitting is AAA/AAAA at best and a major league capable pitcher should be able to dominate at a sub-minor league level. Once they come back here they put up numbers similar to why they left in the first place. Merrill Kelly is an outlier as a pitcher who refined his craft there as a minor leaguer heading overseas and had a lengthy stay to do so
But we love the bat flips in the KBO!
The fact that Plutko has era in the high 5s and an FIP even worse, yet had sub 3 era in the KBO says he either developed a nasty pitch, or the bat flippers don’t adjust well to low 90s heat.
Because its equivalent to AA
The KBO is a notch below NPB from a pure talent perspective, so it is much harder to gauge MLB readiness out of the KBO than it it from Japan. With that said, there are plenty of examples of bad contracts from both major overseas leagues, so it is a crapshoot for sure.
there are a lot of interesting players that might land in the MLB next year after playing in the Korean and Japanese leagues. that includes both foreign and native players
what’s interesting is it’s much heavier on the pitching side this offseason. I know Rucinski backfired on the A’s, but guys like Fedde and Plutko are likely so cheap that it’s worth rolling the dice to see if they can bring those improvements back stateside
It’d be cool if MLBTR did a really big write up on all the guys that are coming over. I know they’ve done some on the bigger names like Yamamoto and Lee
kinda wish that mlb the show had an international free agent vault. i’m sure there’s licensing issues with using real names but it would be cool to be able to sign some of those guys in franchise mode..
Pirates should be looking at Plutko. They are going to need options and this seems like it could be a low cost flyer. 2 years $5M?
Pretty much all of the bottom 20 teams should be looking at him. Probably a good signing for the A’s or Rockies
Rockies need to capitalize on this type of pitcher looking for an inroad back to MLB with something to prove because we all know the likes of Snell, Montgomery, Nola, etc would want massive overpayment to pitch in COL.
There are bunch of teams that need cheap starting pitching and don’t have much choice but to look at guys like this from the fa pool
Came here just to write this. He’d be a clear upgrade over what would comprise their back end of the rotation pieces
Not a bad flyer signing for a team looking to fill out their rotation or find a swing man. The Reds should consider him, though it would be nice if the K % was higher. Nice ground ball ratio … wonder what the exit velocities look like.
A’s!
He must have improved tremendously because I watched Suck-to with the O’s and his only talent seemed to be pouring gasoline on the fire
His control might be slightly better but I didn’t see anything that suggested that he improved much from his Cleveland days
Plutko would be a bad idea, this guy has shown horrible lack of groundball tendencies and even compared to other guys potentially coming back from the KBO his groundball rate looks considerably lower in comparison especially when considering that sports info solutions groundball rates are considerably inflated for the KBO since most stadiums don’t have trackman data to use.