Left-hander Kyle Hart signed with the NC Dinos of the Korea Baseball Organization, the team announced (h/t to Jee-ho Yoo of Yonhap News). He’ll be paid a $200K signing bonus and a $500K salary, while there’s another $200K in possible incentives.
Hart, a 6’5″ hurler from the University of Indiana, has four major league games to his name. Those came with the Red Sox in 2020. He struggled in that limited look, allowing 21 runs in 11 innings. While he hasn’t gotten back to the big leagues since, he signed successive minor league contracts with the Phillies and Mariners this past season.
The former 19th-round pick only pitched once for the Phils’ top farm team. He was a regular member of the rotation for Seattle’s Triple-A team after signing in June, however. Over 18 starts in the Pacific Coast League, Hart posted a 4.58 ERA through 88 1/3 innings. He struck out a reasonable 22.1% of opponents against a 9.1% walk rate.
This will be Hart’s first overseas stint. He joins former Marlins left-hander Daniel Castano as the club’s two foreign-born pitchers to open the season. They replace Erick Fedde (who signed a $15MM deal with the White Sox) and Tanner Tully. Yoo notes that the team is not retaining outfielder Jason Martin, so they’ll look for an additional hitter to meet their allotted three non-Korean players.
Did Kyle agree only if he was given veto power over future team personnel moves like the aging ohtani (worst contract of all time) demanded and was given by the Dodgers?
Same comment on every thread, someone’s super salty 😛
Your cope is delicious, kiddo
It’s silly the Asians leagues have these foreign born player stipulation’s but in MLB it’s come one and all.
I have read the Korean KBO is about the level of AA in the US, so too many US players would take up too many spots reserved for Korean players. It is like men in women sports, or maybe a better comparison MLB (or very close to it) vs a whole lot of AA players. It just would not be fair.
William Cuevas a AAAA type who was never good enough to last in the MLB went to Korea and was 12 – 0, and he won their version of the CY Young award.
@jc. I understand the talent level in the KBO is low but the NPB (Japan) is higher and they only allow a maximum of 4 players foreign born per team last I checked. Maybe MLB should adopt the same measures of 4 foreign born players per 25 man active roster?
Because MLB is the top baseball league in the world and wants access to the best players. That is not what the NPB wants. They want access to *some* better international talent, but they don’t want that talent to overrun its Japanese leagues. They also are happy to sell off their top talent to MLB as long as they get a piece of the action. It’s about money for both MLB and for NPB.
Well it does reflect the open border policy in the USA then.
Burrow – ‘open border’ has nothing to do with baseball players being in the USA. They are here legally on work visas.
1) The MLB teams are willing to pay big $ for prime quality talent.
2) The Japanese team get a posting fee.
3) Many / all of the Latin Americans live in areas where even minor league $ are more than they would make locally.
Japan does not tolerate some things we are obliged to “celebrate” here. I better stop there lest the thought police come for me…
Their mascot is a roided out T-Rex named “Dandi” who wears a little ball cap lol
That’s DINO MITE!
21 runs in 11 innings is beyond mediocre
This one is in my profession,
So will be “that guy,”… no such school as “University of Indiana”
IU = Indiana University. Not University of Indiana. And yes, it matters.
Indiana University * show some respect Anthony Franco, if that is your real name
University of Indiana is an awesome school. Nobody knows about it though.