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Recapping The KBO League’s International Player Signings

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With the lockout slowing MLB-related transactions to a crawl of minor league deals, transactions involving Korean Baseball Organization teams have taken more of a spotlight on MLBTR’s pages since the start of December.  These moves have included the signings of several names familiar to North American baseball fans, as the KBO League’s clubs have looked to address their allocated three roster spots for non-Korean players.  International-born players can only sign contracts worth a maximum of $1MM in total salary, and players new to the KBO League can sign only one-year pacts.

Though the Doosan Bears have one signing that still isn’t yet official, the other 29 slots have been filled.  It is still possible this list could be adjusted in the coming weeks due to a number of factors — injuries, players returning to North America (for personal reasons or a deal with an MLB team), issues related to the pandemic, or teams just changing their minds after seeing the players in training camp.  Here is the rundown of this winter’s international signings for the 10 KBO League franchises….

Doosan Bears
Jose Miguel Fernandez (deal not yet finalized), Ariel Miranda, Robert Stock

NC Dinos
Nick Martini, Wes Parsons, Drew Rucinski

Hanwha Eagles
Ryan Carpenter, Nick Kingham, Mike Tauchman

Lotte Giants
Charlie Barnes, DJ Peters, Glenn Sparkman

Kiwoom Heroes
Tyler Eppler, Eric Jokisch, Yasiel Puig

SSG Landers
Kevin Cron, Wilmer Font, Ivan Nova

Samsung Lions
David Buchanan, Jose Pirela, Albert Suarez

Kia Tigers
Socrates Brito, Sean Nolin, Ronnie Williams

LG Twins
Casey Kelly, Adam Plutko, Rio Ruiz

KT Wiz
William Cuevas, Odrisamer Despaigne, Henry Ramos

KBO’s SSG Landers Sign Ivan Nova

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The SSG Landers of the Korea Baseball Organization announced they’ve signed longtime big league starter Iván Nova (h/t to Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News). It’s a $900K guarantee that could top out at $1MM, the maximum allowed for a first-year foreign born player, if Nova reaches all the deal’s incentives.

It’ll be the first playing experience outside of North America for Nova, who turns 35 years old next month. The righty signed with the Yankees as an amateur free agent coming out of the Dominican Republic back in 2004. He made his big league debut with New York in 2010 and spent the next five seasons as a member of the rotation. Nova posted an ERA below 4.00 in both 2011 and 2013, although he generally offered average production on a rate basis while soaking up innings at the back of the rotation.

The Yankees traded Nova to the Pirates at the 2016 deadline, and he spent the next two and a half seasons offering similarly decent bulk frames in Pittsburgh. Nova tossed 187 innings of 4.72 ERA ball in 2019, although that’s the last extended action he’s logged in the majors. He made just four starts with the Tigers in 2020 and didn’t pitch in affiliated ball this year. While Nova signed a minor league contract with the Rockies in April, he was released a few weeks later without seeing any game action.

Nova would surely have been limited to minor league contracts had he sought out opportunities in affiliated ball this winter. Instead, he’ll lock in some guaranteed money and presumably get a rotation job with the Landers. It’s not of the question Nova could attract MLB interest next offseason if he performs well in South Korea.

Rockies Release Ivan Nova

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The Rockies released right-hander Ivan Nova from his minor league deal last week, The Athletic’s Nick Groke reports (via Twitter).  It was a brief stint for Nova in the organization, as he only just signed with Colorado back on April 12.

Nova also signed a minors contract with the Phillies in January, but he was granted his release near the end of Spring Training since he wasn’t going to make the Opening Day roster.  Nova’s deal with Philadelphia contained an out clause, and it isn’t known if a similar opt-out was also included in his Rockies contract — given the timing of the release, it’s possible that Nova had the ability to opt out of the deal if he wasn’t on Colorado’s big league roster by May 1, for instance.

A veteran of 11 MLB seasons, Nova posted an 8.53 ERA over 19 innings for the Tigers in 2020, missing much of the season due to right triceps tendinitis.  The right-hander has been a reliable innings-eater for much of his career (tossing 187 frames for the White Sox as recently as 2019) and also delivered some solid results despite a big fastball and a below-average strikeout rate, as Nova has relied on soft contact and 48.9% grounder rate.  With a 5.07 ERA/5.23 SIERA over his last 206 big league innings, however, it remains to be seen if Nova can offer anything more than just innings as he enters his age-34 season.

Rockies To Sign Ivan Nova

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The Rockies have agreed to a deal with right-hander Ivan Nova, FanSided’s Robert Murray reports (Twitter link).  It is presumably a minor league contract, which would be the second minors deal of the last three months for the veteran hurler.  Nova previously inked a minors pact with the Phillies last January but was granted a release at the end of March when he didn’t make Philadelphia’s Opening Day roster.

Nova signed a one-year, $1.5MM Major League deal with the Tigers prior to the 2020 season but ended up pitching only 19 innings (with an 8.53 ERA) due to right triceps tendinitis.  With the very notable exception of the Tommy John surgery that cut short both his 2014 and 2015 seasons, Nova has otherwise been a pretty durable pitcher throughout his 11-year career, averaging 174 innings per year from 2016-19 and also banking 335 2/3 frames with the Yankees in 2012-13.

Colorado doesn’t have much rotation depth in the minors, so Nova is by far the most experienced option available at the alternate training site.  How Nova might fare at Coors Field is an open question, as he has a 15.2% homer rate since the start of the 2012 season, though he does generate his share of ground balls (career 48.9% grounder rate) to make up for a lack of strikeouts.

Ivan Nova, Hector Rondon Granted Release By Phillies

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Veteran right-handers Ivan Nova and Hector Rondon have requested and been granted their release by the Phillies, per a club announcement. They were both in camp on minor league deals and hoping to win roster spots. Both had out clauses in their deals.

The 34-year-old Nova was signed in late January — not long after president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski voiced a desire to add some veteran rotation depth on minor league pacts. However, his hopes of making the Opening Day roster were likely dashed just a few weeks after he inked his deal; the Phillies signed both Matt Moore and Chase Anderson to one-year, Major League contracts in early February. A poor showing in camp didn’t do him any favors, either. Nova yielded 10 runs on 15 hits and an uncharacteristic nine walks in 12 1/3 innings of work, striking out six along the way.

Rondon, 33, has been tagged for six earned runs on eight hits in seven innings, but he has a more encouraging 8-to-2 K/BB ratio in that time. The Phillies have some openings in their bullpen, but it’s widely expected that Brandon Kintzler and Tony Watson are leading the pack of non-roster invitees competing for those remaining jobs. It’s plausible that one or both of Kintzler and Watson make the club. Both have March 24 opt-outs in their deals — the same as Rondon — but the team hasn’t announced a move regarding either pitcher yet. Assuming both Kintlzer and Watson triggered their out clauses, the Phils have until tomorrow afternoon to add them to the roster or grant them their release.

Phillies Sign Ivan Nova To Minors Contract

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The Phillies have signed right-hander Ivan Nova to a minor league deal, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports (via Twitter).  Nova will earn $1.5MM if he cracks Philadelphia’s active roster.

The signing reunites Nova with Joe Girardi, who managed the righty over Nova’s seven seasons with the Yankees.  Nova delivered some solid results in New York’s rotation (albeit missing large parts of the 2014-15 seasons due to Tommy John surgery) before being dealt to the Pirates at the 2016 trade deadline.  Nova pitched for the Bucs through the 2018 campaign, before moving on to the White Sox in 2019 and the Tigers in 2020.

Never a hard thrower or a big strikeout pitcher (career 16.7 K%), Nova has relied on durability and a lot of ground balls as his calling card over 11 Major League seasons.  However, Nova’s performance took a drastic dropoff last season, with an 8.53 ERA over the admittedly small sample size of 19 innings in Detroit’s rotation.  Nova did allow four home runs in that brief stint, and issued as many walks (nine) as strikeouts.

Nova averaged 174 innings per season from 2016-19, returning from his TJ surgery with seemingly no loss of his former durability.  If the 34-year-old has anything left in the tank, the Phillies could use Nova as an innings-eater at the back of their rotation, or as the first line of defense if any of their projected five starters suffers an injury or needs to be rested to rebuild arm strength.  The Phils also signed Bryan Mitchell to a minor league deal earlier today, a former Nova teammate under Girardi in the Bronx.

Tigers Reinstate Jordan Zimmermann, Select Nick Ramirez

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The Tigers have reinstated right-hander Jordan Zimmermann from the injured list and selected lefty Nick Ramirez, Evan Woodbery of MLive.com tweets. In other moves, they optioned righties John Schreiber and Kyle Funkhouser and moved a pair of players – righty Ivan Nova and outfielder JaCoby Jones – to the 45-day IL.

Zimmermann, out all season with forearm issues, will make his 2020 debut with a start against the Cardinals on Thursday. Surprisingly, the 34-year-old will rejoin a team with at least a glimmer of a playoff chance as the regular season runs out of time. The Tigers haven’t qualified for the playoffs in any season since they signed Zimmermann, a former Nationals standout, to a five-year, $110MM contract before 2016, but they’re alive this year with a 19-22 record.

Of course, the failed Zimmermann deal is among the many reasons Detroit has struggled so much in recent years. Zimmermann has only given the Tigers 508 2/3 innings of 5.61 ERA/4.86 FIP ball so far. No matter how this season ends, though, Zimmermann seems likely to end up in search of a new organization soon as a pending free agent.

Ramirez, 31, made his major league debut with the Tigers last year and performed respectably, recording a 4.07 ERA/4.51 FIP across 79 2/3 innings from their bullpen. He logged 8.36 K/9, 3.95 BB/9 and a 46.2 percent groundball rate in the process.

Tigers Place Ivan Nova On Injured List

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Detroit Tigers’ starter Ivan Nova is headed to the 10-day injured list with right triceps tendinitis, the team announced. Right-hander Anthony Castro has been recalled to fill the roster spot.

Nova, 33, was brought in this winter to provide a veteran and reliable presence in the rotation. The Tigers are flush with rotation prospects – Matt Manning, Tarik Skubal, Casey Mize, among them – but in the near-term, Detroit wanted to reliability to join with injury-bitten and/or inconsistent arms like Jordan Zimmermann, Daniel Norris, and Michael Fulmer. Nova is off to a rough start, going 1-1 with a 8.53 ERA/6.34 FIP through four starts.

It’s not yet clear who will step into Nova’s spot in the rotation. Dario Agrazal is not likely to be the guy, per Evan Woodbery of MLive.com. The Tigers aren’t likely to need to name a replacement until Tuesday or Wednesday’s game. Fans and pundits alike will be hopeful that Mize gets the call here, but the Tigers have shown a reluctance to bring up their top rotation prospects.

Filling Out The Tigers’ Starting Rotation

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UPDATE: Zimmermann has been placed on the 45-day injured list, per MLB.com’s Jason Beck and others (Twitter links). The Tigers aren’t ruling him out for the season yet.

TODAY: Jordan Zimmermann is dealing with the same sort of forearm soreness that sapped him of much of the 2019 season, per Chris McCosky of The Detroit News. If he can stay healthy – a big if – Zimmermann would look to make the most of a short season by proving his arm still plays at the major league level. This will be the final year of the five-year, $110MM pact he signed with the Tigers before the 2016 season.

It’s been a tough couple of years for Zimmermann, who will end his contract without ever making 30 starts in a season after doing so in each of his final four seasons with the Nationals. Despite the precipitous drop in performance, the Tigers were nonetheless turning to Zimmermann as a veteran stopgap in a rotation that will soon be overrun by high-upside prospects like Tarik Skubal, Matt Manning, Franklin Perez, Casey Mize, and Joey Wentz. The rotation is already without Daniel Norris, who has yet to pitch in camp after testing positive for coronavirus.

In the meantime, the Tigers are scrambling to fill out the rotation behind ace Matthew Boyd. Veteran Ivan Nova was brought in to soak up innings (34 starts, 187 innings in 2019), and Spencer Turnbull figures to slot in somewhere in the middle of the rotation after a mostly-strong showing in 2019. Turnbull went 3-17 last season with a 4.61 ERA/3.99 FIP. He’s done a nice job of limiting long balls throughout his two seasons in the majors, and if he can improve upon some control issues that led to an AL-high 16 hit batters and 3.6 BB/9, the Tigers hope Turnbull can level off his 4.76 career ERA and land closer to his 3.88 career FIP mark.

Beyond those three, the Tigers are working on extending the innings of Dario Agrazal, Shao-Ching Chiang, Hector Santiago, and Tyler Alexander to potentially fill out the rotation. Former Rookie of the Year Michael Fulmer also has a chance to get some rotation innings, writes McCosky. Fulmer missed all of 2019 after undergoing Tommy John surgery.

Of the youngsters in camp, Mize probably has the best shot of cracking the rotation. Under normal circumstances, Mize would be ticketed for Triple-A after 22 starts with a 2.55 ERA in Double-A last year, but without minor league games to further his development, count Mize among the many young stars with a slightly better chance of breaking into the big leagues sometime during the shortened 2020 season. Seven days on the taxi squad will be enough for the Tigers to secure an extra year of service time, notes McCosky, but manager Ron Gardenhire doesn’t plan on making any official decisions until knowing more about the health of Zimmermann and Norris.

Tigers Sign Ivan Nova

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The Tigers announced that they have signed righty Ivan Nova. It’s a one-year deal with a $1.5MM guarantee and $500K in incentives, per MLB.com’s Jason Beck (via Twitter), Jon Heyman of MLB Network (via Twitter), and Robert Murray (Twitter link). To create roster space, lefty Matt Hall was designated for assignment.

Nova is an exceedingly reliable but not an especially upside-laden pitcher. He has been good for about thirty starts and 170+ innings of low-walk pitching annually over the past four seasons. But with a cumulative 4.31 ERA in that span, and a lengthy track record of below-average strikeout rates, Nova can’t be expected to do much more.

The question is whether Nova can even maintain that level of productivity. He just reached his 33rd birthday and sat below the 93 mph level with his four-seam fastball for the first time in 2019. Nova also is coming off of his worst campaign since 2015, turning in a 4.72 ERA after three-straight years in which he sat in the 4.14-4.19 band at season’s end. His strikeout rate dipped to lower than six per nine innings and Nova allowed more than 1.4 homers per nine for the third-consecutive year.

Despite some evidence of a downturn, Nova was mostly the same pitcher. More than anything, his proclivity to surrender runs may just have risen along with the leaguewide tide. His relatively hefty innings total also reflects the fact that he was allowed to oface opposing hitters for a third time more than was perhaps desirable. In 191 such plate appearances, batters slashed a robust .308/.374/.552.

For the most part, the Tigers can anticipate receiving a reasonable volume of palatable innings. The club obviously saw reason to pick up some sturdy frames in 2020 while waiting for their top-rated upper-level arms to finish off their development. Nova will suit that need at an affordable price. If all goes according to plan, he could even be cashed in at the trade deadline.

The addition of Nova could come at the expense of losing Hall. The 26-year-old southpaw could be targeted on the waiver wire by teams that fancy a shot at unlocking his upside. Hall has been knocked around in brief MLB action, but produces spin on his curveball at an elite rate and has shown strikeout ability in the upper minors.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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