The Korea Baseball Organization’s KIA Tigers announced last night that they’ve agreed to terms with right-hander Wil Crowe on a one-year deal worth $800K guaranteed with incentives that could take the deal to $1MM (h/t to Dan Kurtz of MyKBO). Crowe spent the 2023 season with the Pirates but was outrighted off the club’s roster over the summer and released back in November.
Crowe, 29, was selected by the Nationals in the second round of the 2017 draft and made his debut with the club during the shortened 2020 campaign. The righty struggled during his cup of coffee in D.C. with a 11.88 ERA in 8 1/3 innings of work across three appearances. That would ultimately prove to be Crowe’s only appearances in a Nationals uniform, as the right-hander was shipped to Pittsburgh alongside fellow right-hander Eddy Yean on that offseason in a deal that netted the Nationals first baseman Josh Bell.
Upon joining the Pirates, Crowe was placed into the club’s rotation for the 2021 season. The assignment did not go well, as the right-hander posted a 5.48 ERA and 5.67 FIP in 116 2/3 innings of work across 26 appearances (25 starts). While he struck out a respectable 21.2% of batters faced in 2021, the right-hander struggled with his command and walked opposing hitters at a 10.9% clip. The struggles in the rotation prompted a shift to the bullpen in 2022, and Crowe found success in that role for much of the season.
Crowe posted a solid 3.12 ERA and 3.41 FIP in his first 51 appearances (66 1/3 frames) in 2022 as he strikeout and walk rates improved to 22.1% and 9.8%, respectively. Unfortunately, Crowe ran out of gas late in the year and struggled to a whopping 13.03 ERA over his final nine appearances, walking 11 and striking out just seven in 9 2/3 innings of work. The brutal finish to an otherwise solid season saw opposing hitters tee off against Crow to the tune of a .378/.500/.689 slash line as his ERA ballooned to 4.38 on the season. While he returned to the Pirates in 2023, the right-hander made just five appearances before being sidelined by shoulder discomfort and outrighted off the roster in July.
Going forward, the right-hander will get the opportunity to revitalize his career overseas. By joining the Tigers, Crowe will make more than the major league minimum while occupying one of three spots on the team the club can offer to foreign players. Outfielder Socrates Brito occupies another of those spots, while right-hander Thomas Pannone departed in favor of a minor league deal with the Cubs last month after spending the 2023 campaign with the Tigers overseas.
Easily a no brainer, go to Korea possibly make a million bucks, reinvent yourself for a possible big league payday, and not have to settle for an AAA salary.
Or he could spend the rest of his career overseas. It’s been done before, Casey Kelly Dustin Nippert both stayed in Korea rather then try to come back to MLB.
Trevor Bauer
Trevor Bauer will be just fine. Meanwhile Roger Beshens is doomed to a life living in his mother’s basement.
He won’t be coming back to MLB.
A lot of ex-Pirates ending up in Asia this offseason.
That’s where AAAA players go after the last resort dumpster diving Buccos.
Wil Crowe was like the movie Major Leauge. Only thing missing was the theme song wild Thing.
And the elite velocity fastball no one could hit.
Roger Beshens Football Slider is just some pitch he struck out the worst kid in the neighborhood playing wiffle ball 30 years ago and in his messed up head thinks major league pitchers stole it.
I haven’t been on Facebook since May 2010 so you are 8 years too late bro.
“Grip, Tilt and Wrist action” That does sound nice.
Many learn that new slider they call the sweeper, the media needs to report in May 2018 Roger Beshens taught Glasnow, Musgrove, Taillon, Kuhl, Crick, Trevor Williams his “Football Slider” Baseball reference contacted Roger in Nov 2018 cause he taught so many ML pitchers, google Roger Beshens football slider twitter and click images. Messages to Snell, Glasnow, Sonny Gray, Bieber, Giolioto….hundreds more.
Thanks, Rog!
Media interviews players all the time. Players think so little of Roger Beshens they don’t even mention him.
Hey dip it. You just said media needs to report dip it. Everyone can see what you wrote dip it. So you a liar or changed your mind?
No one knows who you are. You are irrelevant in the baseball world. Stop trying to take credit for things you didn’t do. If you knew anything about pitching you would be getting paid to do so instead of being in here type fake news novels on a article that won’t get even 100 comments.
I haven’t been on Facebook since about 3 years after I was last on MySpace. I will ask Jeeves about you bro.
Not hiding. I just like the mystery. Do I work in baseball? Know anything at all about baseball? Am I even a real person? Other than my friends on here you don’t know. You can determine for yourself. One thing for sure. I am happy enough and financially secure enough I don’t have to go around telling people who have no idea who I am that I did such and such and should get my credit for it. I don’t have 997 How to Throw the Rodger Beshens Football Slider dvds in the trunk of my car.
I guess he was too young for the White Sox because his high ERA would had met the Getz job requirements.
He didn’t play for KC neither.
Man I just got a signed baseball by him yesterday in a mystery ball sale at Piratefest lol.
Lucky you. I got a Josh Van Meter.
That’s rough lol. I got a Jameson Taillon, Danny Vogelbach, and Wil Crowe
The Bell and Marte trades were both gifts from Ben Cherington.
Marte trade was given the time it was made. Bell just had to go for whatever he could fetch so they could dump salary and tank.
Both were salary dumps pure and simple and both could have gotten back decent young players at the trade deadlines.
They were given away when they did not have to be.
Probably Nutting got involved because this is not basketball or football where tanking can be beneficial.
And hopefully Cherington does not think that it is.
Probably a good idea to refresh everything and get a new perspective. In 2023, on average, the exit velocity on his pitches was 90.6 vs. 88.4 for the league. Not going to survive in the league when you’re giving up balls like that. There was definitely some negative regression coming his way as his FRA in 2023 was 5.49, suggesting he’d see his ERA spike to the 5+ range.
All the best in Korea. I hope you can make some changes and return to the MLB but if not, enjoy your career and hope you can at least make a career somewhere playing ball.
Wil Crowe – the guy that will forever be known as the guy that gave up Aaron Judge’s 60th homerun and then immediately after blows a four run lead to lose the game in the bottom of the ninth. I was there.
The list of ex-Nationals farmhand pitchers is getting auspicious: Crowe, Robbie Ray, Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, Dane Dunning, It’s an interesting group, none of whom was given a serious trial with the club that drafted ’em. They all became trade fodder. Yet Ray and Giolito have had big years, and Dunning now has a WS ring.