Free agent right-hander Elvin Rodriguez has signed with the Lotte Giants of the Korea Baseball Organization, the team announced. He’ll receive $1MM for the 2026 campaign. Lotte also announced the re-signing of outfielder Victor Reyes at $1.4MM and the signing of right-hander Jeremy Beasley for $1MM.
Rodriguez, 27, spent the 2023-24 seasons with the Yakult Swallows in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, parlaying that into a big league deal with the Brewers last winter. He wound up pitching 19 2/3 innings in the majors between Milwaukee and Baltimore but was tagged for 20 runs in that time. The 2025 season was Rodriguez’s second with at least some MLB work. He also briefly appeared with Detroit back in 2022. He’s surrendered 55 runs in 52 2/3 MLB frames but notched a sub-2.00 ERA in 45 1/3 innings as a reliever during his 2024 season in NPB.
Reyes, another former Tiger, is entering his third season with the KBO’s Giants. The 31-year-old has slashed .339/.390/.493 in 1275 plate appearances without missing a game during his first two KBO campaigns. Reyes previously played in parts of five seasons with Detroit from 2018-22, hitting a combined .264/.294/.379 in a nearly identical sample of plate appearances (1280) to his KBO workload thus far. While he didn’t carve out a role as a big league regular, this year’s deal with Lotte brings him up to $3.35MM worth of guaranteed earnings during his three years in South Korea (not including some incentives that he’s surely unlocked along the way).
Beasley, 30, pitched in the majors with the D-backs and Blue Jays from 2020-22, tossing a combined 24 2/3 innings with a 5.84 ERA. The right-hander has a solid track record in Triple-A and has spent the past three seasons pitching for the Hanshin Tigers in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. He’s pitched to a 2.82 ERA in his three seasons with Hanshin but spent the bulk of this past season with the Tigers’ farm club. As with Rodriguez and Reyes, Beasley never really found his footing in the majors but has carved out a nice living pitching professionally overseas. He’s still young enough that an eventual MLB comeback can’t be entirely ruled out, but he’ll need to take a step forward after last year’s rocky showing in Japan.
