Vince Velasquez To Sign With KBO’s Lotte Giants

The Guardians announced this morning that right-hander Vince Velasquez will sign with the Lotte Giants of the Korea Baseball Organization for the remainder of the season. Velasquez has been pitching with Cleveland’s Triple-A affiliate. His contract is being sold to the Giants, who’ll send cash back to Cleveland. Velasquez and his agents at CAA have surely negotiated a deal with the Giants that’ll pay the right-hander more than he’d have received by playing out the remainder of his minor league deal with the Guardians.

Velasquez, 33, hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2023. The Guardians selected his contract to the big league roster back in late April, but he was designated for assignment a few days later before ever getting into a game. He could’ve rejected the subsequent outright assignment after he cleared waivers, but he opted to remain with the organization.

In 81 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level this year, Velasquez has pitched to a 3.42 ERA with a strong 26.8% strikeout rate but an ugly 14.1% walk rate. Velasquez has averaged fewer than 4 2/3 innings per start, though some of that workload was limited by design. The right-hander had elbow surgery back in June 2023 and missed all of the 2024 season as a result. Cleveland didn’t push him past 4 1/3 innings in an outing until late May. Velasquez still isn’t regularly working deep into games, but he’s pitched into the sixth inning in seven of his past 12 starts and averaged five frames per start along the way.

Selected by the Astros with the 58th overall draft pick back in 2010, Velasquez has pitched in parts of nine major league seasons. He’s totaled 763 2/3 innings with a 4.88 earned run average, 24.9% strikeout rate and 9.3% walk rate in that time.

In 2025, Velasquez has gotten stronger as the season has worn on (3.17 ERA over his past 12 starts). He’s sitting 92.5 mph with his fastball — down a couple miles from his peak levels — and complementing that four-seamer with a slider, knuckle curve, changeup and sinker (in order of usage rate).

To make room for Velasquez, the Giants are slated to waive left-hander Tucker Davidson, per a report from the Chosun Ilbo (a South Korean news outlet). Davidson has pitched to a 3.65 ERA on the season, including six innings of one-run ball last night in his tenth win of the season. The team had concerns about Davidson’s lack of consistency, per the report, and opted to make a change before the KBO’s Aug. 15 postseason eligibility deadline for foreign signees (hat tip to Dan Kurtz of MyKBO).

Davidson, 29, has pitched in parts of five major league seasons between the Braves, Angels and Orioles. The lefty once ranked as one of the more promising arms in Atlanta’s system but has totaled 129 2/3 innings with a rocky 5.76 ERA in the majors.