The Mets have granted first baseman Jiman Choi a release from his minor league contract, reports Will Sammon of the Athletic (X link). Choi was one of a handful of players who had an opt-out date tomorrow. It seems he informed the team he intended to trigger the out clause and the Mets decided not to call him up.
Choi signed with the Mets in the early part of Spring Training. He lost out to DJ Stewart in a camp battle for an Opening Day roster spot. The lefty hitter nevertheless reported to Triple-A Syracuse and bypassed chances to retest free agency at the end of Spring Training and on May 1. He didn’t find much success in the organization, hitting .183/.307/.317 over 101 Triple-A plate appearances.
While Choi drew an impressive 16 walks, he struck out 28 times and only collected 15 hits in 25 games. He was on the minor league injured list between late April and May 14. He had a .189/.319/.378 slash before the injury and turned in a .171/.268/.286 mark after returning.
There probably wouldn’t have been room on the big league roster for Choi even if he were raking in Syracuse. Pete Alonso and J.D. Martinez are locked in at first base and designated hitter, respectively. Stewart, who has reached base at a .352 clip in 122 plate appearances behind a massive 17.2% walk percentage, is on hand as a lefty bench bat. The Mets have already had too many defensively limited players on the bench in recent weeks, leading them to option Brett Baty and call up Jose Iglesias this morning.
Choi’s middling performance in Syracuse makes it unlikely he’ll land an immediate MLB job. His camp will presumably search for another minor league contract with an organization offering more of a path to first base playing time. Choi stumbled to a .163/.239/.385 showing between the Pirates and Padres in a 2023 season mostly lost to injuries. He was a productive platoon bat for the Rays from 2019-22, hitting .248/.361/.447 in more than 1100 plate appearances against right-handed pitching.
Out of curiosity, is there a reason for the change in how Korean names are being spelled out lately? Like Jiman Choi instead of Ji-man Choi, or Hyun Jin Ryu instead of Hyun-Jin Ryu. Is it some romanization issue that has caused the hyphen that’s being corrected lately, or something else?
I don’t know.
There is no official way, since this is the romanization of their names in Hangul. It really comes down to individual choice or whatever the parents had them do as a kid. Most common is three separate words with no hyphens. Source: I’m writing this from my apartment in Seoul.
Lucky you, how’s Seoul?
Better than Pyongyang.
In this case Choi asked for the re-spelling. He was quoted during training camp as saying that the current way is the correct spelling and he had just never bothered to correct anyone until now.
I don’t recall the specific source, but I got the infos and the link from another poster here.
Not sure. All I know is that I do not trust anyone with punctuation in their name. There just seems something fishy about it to me. Just a personal belief.
He was on the Mets!?!?!?
Yes. The Syracuse Mets
Ji man, go easy on him
This is the best pun I’ve ever seen on this sight. The only one I’ve ever . Thank you
Choi hasn’t hit since leaving the Rays, might be a good idea to get the agent to beg them to take him back
To be honest he might actually play better than most of the starters on the Rays right now. I’d take him back. At least he’s likeable unlike 80% of the Rays roster.
Strong side platoon bat, big game experience, fan and clubhouse favorite, there’s gotta be a fit somewhere (when healthy). Hoping he sticks
Did you know Jiman means “brag” in Japanese and Choi means “a little” in Japanese?
No
I’d be more interested in knowing when was the last time he missed a meal… of any type. Order up! Ahahaha!