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Hyeon-Jong Yang

Hyeon-jong Yang Signs With KBO’s Kia Tigers

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Left-hander Hyeon-jong Yang is officially returning to the Korea Baseball Organization, as the Kia Tigers announced that Yang has signed a four-year deal.  (Hat tip to Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News.)  Yang will earn a signing bonus of roughly $2.53MM, and a little over $2.1MM in guaranteed salary over the course of the four-year deal.  A hefty array of incentive bonuses are also available, as Yang can almost double his salary (around $4.04MM) if he hits all of his bonuses.

Yang posted a 5.60 ERA in his lone season in Major League Baseball, tossing 35 1/3 innings with the Rangers in 2021.  After signing a minor league deal last winter, Yang ended up cracking the Texas roster and serving in a swingman role, starting four of his 12 games.  Not a big strikeout pitcher even in his heyday in the KBO League, Yang didn’t miss many bats in the majors (15.6% strikeout rate) and he had plenty of trouble with the long ball, allowing nine homers in his brief time on the big league mound.

The Rangers sent Yang back and forth from Triple-A on a couple of occasions before ultimately designating him for assignment in September.  Yang elected to become a free agent after the season, and early reports indicated that he was looking at returning to South Korea, and in particular a return to the Tigers, his longtime team.

As Yoo writes, there were a few hurdles to be jumped in negotiations between the two sides, with the larger amount of incentives reflecting the Tigers’ wariness about Yang’s struggles over the last two seasons.  Even before heading to MLB, Yang posted a 4.70 ERA over 172 1/3 innings with the Gwangju-based team in 2020.

This was the worst full-season performance of Yang’s 14-year stint with the Tigers, though given his long history of success with the team, it isn’t surprising that the Tigers were interested in a reunion.  Yang has a 3.83 ERA and a 19.77% strikeout rate over 1986 career innings in the KBO League (all with the Tigers), and he is a two-time winner of the Dong-won Choi Award as the league’s best starting pitcher.  Yang was also named MVP of the KBO League as a whole in 2017, as well as Korean Series MVP as he led the Tigers to the championship.

Hyeon-jong Yang Likely Headed Back To KBO

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Former Rangers hurler Hyeon-jong Yang apparently won’t be giving MLB a second go. Yoo Jee-ho of the Yonhap News Agency reports that Yang is likely to return to the Korea Baseball Organization. Before signing with Texas earlier this year, Yang spent 14 seasons with the KBO’s Kia Tigers. Representatives for the team recently told reporters that Yang expressed interest in rejoining the club and that they would attempt to re-sign him.

Now 33 years old, Yang enjoyed a great deal of success with Kia, including winning the regular season and Korean Series MVP trophies in 2017. He appeared in 425 games with the Tigers, posting a 147-95 record and 3.83 ERA.

Unfortunately, those numbers didn’t translate well to the big leagues. Yang signed a minor league deal with Texas on February 12 of this year. He didn’t break camp with the Rangers, but was called up on April 26. He appeared in eight games over the next seven weeks, including four starts, but was mostly ineffective. Over 29 innings he put up a 5.59 ERA and 6.55 FIP. He was then designated for assignment, cleared waivers and assigned to the Round Rock Express, Texas’ Triple-A affiliate. He spent the rest of the season bouncing between Round Rock and Arlington, with similar results.

After being outrighted to Round Rock in mid-September, Yang elected to become a free agent on October 4, setting up a possible return to the KBO.

Players Recently Electing Free Agency

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With the regular season over, a series of players are closing in on free agency. The highest-profile will be available as major league free agents, those with six-plus years of MLB service time not under contract with a team. But there will be dozens of players in the coming weeks who qualify for minor league free agency and more quietly reach the open market as well.

Players can qualify for minor league free agency in a few ways. The most notable of these include: players with 3+ years of MLB service time who have been outrighted off their teams’ 40-man rosters this season, players who have been outrighted off a 40-man roster multiple times in their careers, and unsigned players not on a 40-man roster who have spent parts of at least seven seasons on a minor league roster or injured list.

Many of these players won’t officially reach free agency until the start of the offseason, but some were let go by their teams a few weeks early once the regular season concluded. Each of the following players has elected minor league free agency within the past week, according to the MLB.com and Triple-A transactions trackers:

Rangers Designate Hyeon-jong Yang For Assignment

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TODAY: Yang has been outrighted to Triple-A Round Rock, the Rangers announced.

SEPTEMBER 15: The Rangers announced they’ve designated southpaw Hyeon-jong Yang for assignment. The move creates space on the 40-man roster for corner outfielder/designated hitter Willie Calhoun, who has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list.

Yang has been on and off the big league roster a few times this season. The 33-year-old signed a minor league deal with Texas over the offseason after a generally strong 14-year career with the Kia Tigers of the Korea Baseball Organization. The Rangers selected Yang to the majors a few weeks into the season but he was designated for assignment around six weeks later. He’s since been back for a pair of brief stints on the MLB roster.

Working in a swing role, Yang has tossed 35 1/3 frames of 5.60 ERA ball. He’s posted worse than average strikeout and walk numbers (15.6% and 10%, respectively) while struggling to miss bats at the big league level. Yang has an identical 5.60 ERA in 45 Triple-A innings, although he’s posted better strikeout, walk and swinging strike numbers in the minors.

Calhoun returns after missing nearly three months upon fracturing his left hand on a hit-by-pitch. Injuries have mostly derailed his past couple seasons, as the 26-year-old hasn’t managed to build upon the offensive progress he showed back in 2019. The final few weeks of this year will be big for Calhoun, who is eligible for arbitration for the first time this winter. Manager Chris Woodward recently suggested Calhoun’s lack of playing time lately could make determining whether to tender him a contract a difficult decision, so he’ll look to make that an easier call for the front office with a strong finish to the season.

Every Team’s Initial September Callups

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The limit on active roster players expanded from 26 to 28 today, as the calendar flipped to September. Every team announced at least two additions to the big league club (some teams made three or more due to injured list placements). Here’s a recap of today’s spate of transactions:

Rangers Activate Jonah Heim From Injured List

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The Rangers announced they’ve reinstated catcher Jonah Heim from the COVID-19 injured list. In a corresponding move, left-hander Hyeon-jong Yang was returned to Triple-A Round Rock.

Heim has been out for a little more than a week in health and safety protocols. He’ll now return to the catching group, where he’ll be backed up by Jose Trevino and Yohel Pozo. Acquired from the A’s over the offseason, Heim has hit .208/.245/.370 across 230 plate appearances during his first season in Texas.

Yang was selected last week when the Rangers lost a few players to the COVID IL. Because he was added as a replacement player, he has been removed from the 40-man roster without needing to be placed on waivers. The southpaw made just one appearance over the past few days, tossing two scoreless innings against the Astros on Saturday.

Heim becomes the first player affected by the Rangers’ recent coronavirus spread to make it back. Texas is still without Drew Anderson, Charlie Culberson, Dane Dunning, Mike Foltynewicz, Brock Holt and Spencer Howard because of virus-related reasons.

Rangers Select Hyeon-jong Yang, Ryan Dorow

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The Rangers are selecting the contracts of left-hander Hyeon-jong Yang and infielder Ryan Dorow before this evening’s game against the Indians, according to Levi Weaver of the Athletic (Twitter link). Catcher Jonah Heim is landing on the COVID-19 injured list, joining four other Rangers (Charlie Culberson, Brock Holt, Drew Anderson and Mike Foltynewicz) on the COVID list. It seems Spencer Howard and Dane Dunning could join them, as neither player accompanied the team to Cleveland as part of health and safety protocols. Weaver notes that left-hander Jake Latz is expected to be selected tomorrow as part of the roster maneuvering.

Yang returns for his second stint on the active roster. The KBO veteran signed a minor league deal with Texas over the winter and was selected to make his big league debut in late April. Yang went on to make eight appearances — including four starts — and posted a 5.59 ERA with worse than average strikeout and walk rates (15% and 11.8%, respectively) over 29 innings. Texas designated the 33-year-old for assignment and passed him through outright waivers in June. Yang has worked 45 frames with Triple-A Round Rock this season, posting a 5.60 ERA.

Dorow, who just turned 26 over the weekend, was selected by the Rangers in the 30th round of the 2017 draft out of Division III Adrian College in Michigan. That’s not the draft profile of a likely big leaguer, but Dorow has earned a look at the highest level against the odds with solid numbers up through Double-A. The right-handed hitter owns .260/.347/.405 line across 1455 professional plate appearances, including a .333/.394/.600 showing over 99 trips to the plate with Double-A Frisco this season. He’s struggled in his first look with Round Rock, hitting .210/.305/.359, but Dorow has ample experience at each of second base, third base and shortstop in the minors.

Like Dorow, Latz is in line for his first MLB opportunity. A fifth-rounder out of Kent State in that same draft, Latz has spent most of the season in Frisco. The 25-year-old has a 4.69 ERA over 63 1/3 innings, but he’s punched out a very strong 30.9% of batters faced. That’s come with a slightly elevated 10.3% walk rate, but Texas will give Latz a look in the hope he can carry over his strong bat-missing capabilities to the highest level. Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs slotted Latz as the #50 prospect in the Texas organization in May, praising the southpaw’s above-average curveball.

Because that trio has been (or will be, in Latz’s case) selected to replace players landing on the COVID-19 IL, they can be removed from the active and 40-man rosters upon players’ returns from the COVID list. It seems they could be on the big league club for the near future, though, since COVID spread within the Texas clubhouse has now dealt a significant hit to their infield and rotation depth charts.

Minor MLB Transactions: 6/19/21

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The latest minor moves from around baseball…

  • The Rangers have outrighted left-hander Hyeon-Jong Yang to Triple-A, the team announced.  Yang was designated for assignment earlier this week, on the heels of posting a 5.59 ERA over his first 29 Major League innings.  A veteran of 14 KBO seasons, Yang made the jump to North American baseball this past offseason, signing a minor league deal with Texas that guaranteed him a $1.3MM salary for reaching the active roster.
  • Astros right-hander Francis Martes has returned from the restricted list and been optioned to Triple-A, according Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle (via Twitter).  Martes was issued a 162-game PED suspension in February 2020, so it will still a while before he is eligible to pitch in the majors.  Between two suspensions and a Tommy John surgery, the former top prospect hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since the 2017 season.  Astros manager Dusty Baker told Mark Berman of Fox 26 (Twitter link) and other reporters that the team plans to use Martes out of the bullpen.
  • Earlier this week, the Giants purchased the contract of right-hander Akeel Morris from the independent Long Island Ducks, as announced via the Ducks’ Twitter feed.  Morris pitched in parts of three MLB seasons from 2015-18, posting a 6.14 ERA over 22 total innings for the Mets, Braves, and Angels.  He has since pitched in Australia and in the indy leagues before catching on with the Giants, who have assigned him to their Double-A affiliate.

Rangers Acquire Dennis Santana, Designate Hyeon-jong Yang

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The Rangers announced they’ve acquired right-hander Dennis Santana from the Dodgers in exchange for left-handed pitching prospect Kelvin Bautista. To create 40-man roster space for Santana, Texas designated left-hander Hyeon-jong Yang for assignment. Texas optioned Santana to Triple-A Round Rock.

The Dodgers designated Santana for assignment last week. The 25-year-old saw big league action in each season between 2018-21. Across 40 2/3 MLB innings, Santana has only managed a 6.42 ERA/4.88 SIERA with worse than average strikeout and walk rates (18.7% and 11.9%, respectively). He’s fared particularly poorly this season, allowing eleven runs (ten earned) on eighteen hits and eleven walks with just eight strikeouts across fifteen frames.

To Santana’s credit, he has induced ground balls at a robust 54.9% clip in 2021. That’s a new development but not all that surprising for a pitcher who leans primarily on a 95 MPH sinker. Santana, though, throws an extremely high-spin sinker. Unlike with four-seam fastballs, sinkers tend to fare better as low-spin offerings, since higher-spin heaters can resist gravity and be less likely to dive down towards the bottom of the strike zone.

Nevertheless, Santana’s three-pitch mix (he throws a slider and changeup with relatively equal frequency) has long intrigued scouts. Entering the year, Baseball America ranked Santana the Dodgers #19 prospect, praising his repertoire but questioning his command. The Rangers will now attempt to actualize that upside. Santana is in his final minor league option year, so he can be sent back and forth between Arlington and Round Rock without being exposed to waivers for the remainder of this season. While all 32 of his MLB appearances have come in relief, Santana has started the majority of his minor league games, so it’s possible the Rangers could try to lengthen him back out as rotation depth.

Yang loses his roster spot after eight appearances (four starts). Signed to a minor league deal over the winter after a lengthy, successful career in the Korea Baseball Organization, the 33-year-old was selected to Texas’ MLB roster in late April. Yang struggled in 29 big league innings, working to a 5.59 ERA with a subpar 15% strikeout rate and an elevated 11.8% walk rate. The Rangers will have a week to trade him or place him on outright waivers.

Bautista signed with the Rangers as an amateur out of the Dominican Republic during the 2017-18 international signing period. Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs ranked Bautista the #62 prospect in the Texas farm system last month, noting that the diminutive southpaw throws in the mid-upper 90s with a promising but inconsistent curveball and subpar command.

Rangers Notes: DeShields, Yang, Allard, Jung

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Outfielder Delino DeShields Jr. has foregone the June 1 opt-out clause in his minor league contract and will remain with the Rangers for the time being, per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News (Twitter link). Grant notes that the Rangers are still open to helping DeShields land on a big league roster if the opportunity presents itself. The Yankees reportedly looked into a trade involving DeShields but have thus far opted to go in another direction. Given Texas’ openness to helping DeShields back to the Majors, the Yankees probably wouldn’t have to give much of anything in return.

Of course, Texas could also opt to take another look at DeShields themselves. He’s batting .363/.433/.538 in Triple-A Round Rock, albeit in just 91 plate appearances and with a ridiculous .500 average on balls in play that won’t be sustained. DeShields has spent parts of five seasons as a Ranger, but Texas is currently committed to evaluating younger and/or more controllable players throughout the bulk of the lineup — hence the decision to move on from Elvis Andrus and Rougned Odor this season. Twenty-five-year-old Jason Martin is getting a look right now, and Texas also has Willie Calhoun, Adolis Garcia and Joey Gallo in the current outfield mix.

Some more notes from Arlington…

  • Lefty Hyeon-jong Yang is moving back into the bullpen after four of his past five appearances (including three in a row) were starts, Grant tweets. The former KBO MVP has been hit hard when working out of the rotation — particularly the second time through the order. Everything regarding Yang’s numbers so far comes with a small-sample caveat, given his limited innings count, but he’s pitched to a 3.55 ERA in 12 2/3 innings as a reliever while holding opponents to a .191/.255/.340 output. As a starter, he’s been tagged for 11 runs in 15 innings while yielding a .298/.388/.561 slash. One good start or one poor relief outing could obviously skew those numbers substantially at this point, so those numbers can be taken with a grain of salt. The 33-year-old Yang has tossed at least three innings in all of his appearances as a Ranger, so he’ll give skipper Chris Woodward a multi-inning option.
  • Stepping into Yang’s rotation spot will be left-hander Kolby Allard. The former Braves top prospect and first-round pick has worked primarily out of the bullpen this season but stretched to four innings in his most recent relief outing. Allard held his own as a rookie following the trade that swapped him and reliever Chris Martin in 2019, but he was clobbered for a 7.75 ERA in 33 2/3 innings last summer. He’s been sharp through his small sample of 11 1/3 innings in ’21, sporting a career-best 27 percent strikeout rate and a strong seven percent walk rate. It feels like Allard has been a prospect forever, but that’s common with high-profile high school draftees. He’s still just 23 years of age and has only 19 big league starts under his belt, so there’s time for him to yet emerge as a solid back-end starter for Texas.
  • Top prospect Josh Jung is expected to be cleared to return to action within the next two weeks, per Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The 23-year-old Jung, selected eighth overall in 2019, has yet to play this season after suffering a stress fracture in his foot back in Spring Training. He underwent surgery that came with a recovery period of up to eight weeks. Jung has yet to play above A-ball because of last year’s canceled minor league season, but he hit .316/.389/.443 between Rookie ball and Class-A in 2019, his lone pro season thus far. He’s widely considered to be among the game’s top 100 overall prospects and is viewed as the club’s third baseman of the future.
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