The LG Twins of the Korea Baseball Organization announced earlier this week that right-hander Yonny Chirinos and first baseman Austin Dean have been re-signed to new contracts for the 2026 season. Right-hander Anders Tolhurst is also being brought back, as the Twins will be retaining their entire trio of foreign-born players from the previous season.
Dean earns the largest contract of the group with $1.4MM in guaranteed money ($1.1MM salary, $300K signing bonus) and another $300K available in incentives. Chirinos also got a $300K signing bonus, as well as $900K in guaranteed salary, and up to $200K more in incentives. Tolhurst will receive $800K in salary, a $200K signing bonus, and can get another $200K in incentive bonuses.
All three players were key contributors to a Twins team that won the Korean Series in 2025, and Dean also played a big role in the franchise’s 2023 championship team. Dean has spent the last three seasons with the Twins, hitting .315/.384/.560 with 86 homers over 1686 plate appearances. His distinguished resume with the Seoul-based team also includes a KBO All-Star nod in 2023 and two Golden Glove Awards.
Dean hit .228/.286/.390 over 365 PA and 126 games with the Marlins, Cardinals, and Giants from 2018-22, and had trouble sticking in the majors after getting most of his playing time with Miami in 2018-19. Now entering his age-32 season, Dean has found a nice niche for himself with the Twins, and might well have several more years ahead of him in the KBO League.
Chirinos is another former big leaguer who emerged as a solid member of the Rays’ pitching mix in 2018-19, but a Tommy John surgery threw his career off track. After posting a 3.65 ERA over 234 1/3 innings from 2018-20, Chirinos spent the entire 2021 season rehabbing and then delivered only a 5.31 ERA across 122 innings with the Rays, Braves, and Marlins over the 2022-24 campaigns.
The move to Seoul helped get Chirinos back on track, as he posted a 3.31 ERA across 30 starts and 177 innings. A strong groundball pitcher in the minor leagues, Chirinos took that ability to new heights with a 59.8% grounder rate with the Twins. A tiny 4.9% walk rate also helped him avoid damage, even if he didn’t miss many bats with an 18.6% strikeout rate.
Tolhurst was a 23rd-round pick for the Blue Jays in the 2019 draft, and he didn’t receive any MLB playing time during his four seasons in Toronto’s farm system. He made it as far as Triple-A Buffalo in 2025, posting a 4.67 ERA in 71 1/3 innings with the Bisons. With seemingly no promotion to the Show on the horizon, Tolhurst was released in August so he could make the jump to the KBO League, and he made an instant impact with his new team. Tolhurst had a 2.86 ERA over 44 innings with the Twins, and he was the winning pitcher in both Game 1 and the series-clinching Game 5 of the Korean Series.
Makes sense to make good money in Korea rather then hope for an AAA deal here.
They’re making good money AND playing in AAA (KBO)
Nice to see a Twins team that is ready to spend. Life’s good.