Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Korea Baseball Organization

KBO’s Kiwoom Heroes To Post Lee Jung-hoo After 2023 Season

By | at

The Kiwoom Heroes of the Korea Baseball Organization announced that they will post outfielder and reigning league MVP Lee Jung-hoo after the upcoming season, per Yoo Jee-ho of the Yonhap News Agency.

“After some internal discussions, we agreed to respect the player’s intent to play in Major League Baseball,” the team said in a statement. “We will provide whatever support necessary for the player.” Lee also provided a quote in the statement. “The team has been giving me so much support since I was a rookie, and I was able to start dreaming about playing overseas because the team has helped me grow as a player,” he said. “First and foremost, I will concentrate on the upcoming season. I will put aside personal ambitions and try to help the team win the Korean Series.”

Lee is only 24 years old but already has already played six seasons in the KBO, bursting onto the scene in 2017 when he was only 18 years old. He played 144 games that season and only hit a couple of home runs but showed a great ability at the plate otherwise. He walked in 9.6 percent of his plate appearances while striking out in just 10.8 percent of them and produced a batting line of .324/.395/.417. That production was 12 percent better than league average, as evidenced by his 112 wRC+.

He was given Rookie of the Year honors for that performance and has only continued to get better at the plate in subsequent seasons. His excellent plate discipline has only improved as he’s settled into the league, resulting in a 10.5 percent walk rate and tiny 5.1 percent strikeout rate in 2022. That was the fourth straight season in which he walked more than he struck out. His power has also ticked up over time, with Lee launching 23 home runs in the most recent season. He finished with a batting line of .349/.421/.575 for a wRC+ of 175, indicating he was 75 percent better than league average. He was awarded Most Valuable Player for that excellent work. It’s not just at the plate where Lee shines either. He has stolen 63 bases over his six seasons in the KBO and has won Golden Glove awards for his outfield work in each of the past five campaigns.

After the upcoming campaign, Lee will have the seven seasons of experience necessary for KBO players to be posted. He will also turn 25 in August, a significant milestone for his move to MLB. International players under 25 years of age and/or with fewer than six years of professional experience are considered “amateurs” rather than professionals under MLB’s international free agency rules and are thus subject to the “bonus pool” system, where each team has an MLB-mandated cap on how much it can spend on signing bonuses.

International “amateurs” can only agree to minor league deals and signing bonuses, whereas “professionals” like former NPB players Seiya Suzuki, Masataka Yoshida and Kodai Senga (i.e. players 25 and older with six-plus years of pro experience) are free to sign Major League contracts for any length and dollar amount; for example, Shohei Ohtani came over to the Angels prior to his age-23 season, settling for a $2.3MM signing bonus and was unable to reach free agency until after 2023. Had he waited two more years, he could have immediately signed a nine-figure contract.

Lee will thus be able to sign a contract of any length or dollar amount once he reaches the open market. FanGraphs gives him a 50 grade on the 20-80 scouting scale, giving high praise for his work at the plate. They have a little bit of concern about his ground ball rate being near 60 percent and that he has struggled a bit against high velocity, but they still believe him to be a very exciting player.

If Lee does sign with a major league team next year, the club would owe a fee to the Heroes under the MLB – KBO posting agreement. That’s tied to the size of the contract itself, with the MLB team owing the KBO club 20 percent of the contract’s first $25MM, 17.5 percent of the next $25MM and 15 percent of any dollars thereafter. That fee is on top of any dollars guaranteed to the player himself, and subsequent earning (e.g. performance incentives, contract options) are also subject to the posting system once they become guaranteed to the player.

Enny Romero Signs With KBO’s SSG Landers

By | at

The SSG Landers of the Korea Baseball Organization announced that they have signed left-hander Enny Romero (hat tip to Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net). Romero will make $800K with another $200K available in incentives.

Romero, 32 in January, made 137 MLB appearances from 2013 to 2018, spending time with the Rays, Nationals, Pirates and Royals. He has a career 5.12 ERA but was bombed for a 12.60 mark over 10 innings in 2018 and hasn’t been able to get back to the majors since then.

Romero has since pitched in Japan in 2019, as well as 2021 and 2022. With the Chunichi Dragons in 2019, he was given a rotation job, throwing 116 1/3 innings over 21 appearances with a 4.26 ERA. He didn’t pitch in 2020 but returned to Japan for 2021, this time joining the Chiba Lotte Marines. He was limited to just four appearances that year but had a more substantial showing in 2022, throwing 115 1/3 innings with a 3.36 ERA over 20 games.

For 2023, Romero will stay overseas but will jump from Japan to Korea in order to suit up for the Landers. He’s still young enough that he could return to North American at some point, but for now, he’s secured himself a salary a bit above the major league minimum, which will be $720K in 2023.

KBO League’s LG Twins Sign Austin Dean

By | at

The LG Twins of the Korea Baseball Organization announced that outfielder Austin Dean has been signed to a one-year contract. (Hat tip to Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net.)  Dean receives a $100K signing bonus and a $400K salary for the season, and another $200K is available in bonuses.

Dean (who turned 29 in October) heads to South Korea after 11 seasons in North American pro ball, beginning when he was a fourth-round selection for the Marlins in the 2012 draft.  After making his MLB debut in 2018, Dean has seen some action in each of the last five Major League seasons, though his 98 appearances with Miami in 2018-19 represents most of his big league experience.  The Marlins dealt Dean to the Cardinals in January 2020, and the outfielder has since only played in 28 MLB games.  That includes three games with San Francisco in 2022, after the Giants claimed Dean off waivers from the Cards last offseason.

Over 365 career plate appearances in the Show, Dean has 11 home runs and a .228/.286/.390 slash line.  Unfortunately for Dean, the dreaded “Quad-A” label may apply — while he hasn’t had much success in the majors, he has hit .301/.375/.508 with 45 home runs over 1134 PA at the Triple-A level.  That production at least helped Dean get a few more looks in the big leagues, and it may bode well for him in the more hitter-friendly KBO League.

As noted by Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News, the LG Twins have now filled their three roster spots designated for non-Korean players.  Dean joins right-handers Casey Kelly and Adam Plutko as the Twins’ international contingent, with Kelly returning for his fifth season with the Twins and Plutko his second.

Brian O’Grady Signs With KBO’s Hanwha Eagles

By | at

Brian O’Grady has signed with the Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization, tweets C. Trent Rosecrans of the Athletic. It’s a deal for up to $900K, with $700K in salary and $200K in incentives, according to Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News (Twitter link).

O’Grady got brief looks in the big leagues each season from 2019-21. A former Reds draftee, he played in the Cincinnati system for a half-decade and earned an MLB debut with the Reds in ’19. O’Grady appeared in 28 contests for Cincinnati before being dealt to the Rays the following offseason. The lefty-hitting corner outfielder suited up just twice with Tampa Bay in the shortened 2020 campaign and was outrighted off the roster over the 2020-21 winter. He signed an MLB contract with the Padres and suited up a personal-high 32 times for the Friars the next season.

Between the three clubs, O’Grady managed just a .184/.283/.388 line in 114 MLB plate appearances. He’d hit at an excellent .284/.362/.551 clip through parts of three Triple-A campaigns, though, and that strong upper minors work caught the attention of evaluators in Japan. The Rutgers product inked a deal with the Seibu Lions in Nippon Professional Baseball last offseason. He tallied 465 trips to the plate but didn’t perform as the club had hoped offensively, putting up a .213/.312/.384 line with 15 home runs. O’Grady walked at a quality 11.6% clip but struck out in 27.7% of plate appearances for the Lions.

The Eagles will take a shot on a rebound season, betting on O’Grady’s power and plate discipline. His strong minor league track record gives reason for optimism as he heads to South Korea for the first time. The Philadelphia native turns 31 in May and could eventually look for a return to the affiliated ranks if he performs well in the KBO. For now, he’ll look to help an Eagles team that went just 46-96 this year to bounce back from a last-place finish.

KBO’s NC Dinos Sign Erick Fedde

By | at

The NC Dinos of the Korea Baseball Organization have signed former Nationals right-hander Erick Fedde to a one-year contract, per Jeeho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency (Twitter link). The Boras Corporation client will earn $1MM on the deal, in the form of an $800K salary and $200K signing bonus. That $1MM guarantee is the maximum amount that KBO clubs are able to commit to foreign players in their first year in the league.

Fedde, 30 in February, was the No. 18 overall pick by the Nationals back in 2014 and was long considered one of the sport’s top pitching prospects before making his Major League debut. A standout at UNLV, Fedde might have been selected even higher in the draft had he not required Tommy John surgery during his junior season. The Nats took him in the first round despite the health concerns, and Fedde breezed through the minors once healthy, regularly posting ERAs in the low-  to mid-3.00s before making his MLB debut in 2017.

Unfortunately, Fedde’s mostly healthy run through the minor leagues hasn’t carried over into the big leagues. He’s required 60-day IL stints for both flexor and shoulder troubles during a six-year big league career, in addition to shorter-term IL stints for shoulder inflammation and oblique injuries. He’s also struggled to miss bats in the big leagues, issued walks at an above-average clip and struggled to keep the ball in the yard.

In 454 1/3 innings at the MLB level, Fedde has a career 5.41 ERA with a 17.5% strikeout rate, 9.5% walk rate, 1.55 HR/9 and a 48.9% ground-ball rate. His sinker averaged 93.7 mph in 2017-18 and sat at 93.9 mph as recently as 2021, but this past season’s 92.5 mph average was a career-low mark.

Recent struggles notwithstanding, Fedde was once a high-profile pitching prospect who skated through the minor leagues and reached the Majors as a 24-year-old. He’s still yet to turn 30, so a strong run in the KBO could pave the way for Fedde to return to the Majors — perhaps even on a multi-year contract. Merrill Kelly, Chris Flexen and Josh Lindblom are just a few recent examples of pitchers reinventing themselves in the KBO and subsequently cashing in on a multi-year deal upon returning to pro ball in North America. Cardinals righty Miles Mikolas is the prominent overseas success story, though he found his success in a three-year stint in Japan rather than South Korea. Fedde will look to chart a similar path, and given his relative youth and former prospect status, he’ll be a particularly interesting case to follow with the Dinos in the upcoming season.

KBO’s Hanwha Eagles Sign Burch Smith

By | at

The Hanwha Eagles of the KBO League have signed pitcher Burch Smith for the 2023 season, according to reports out of South Korea (hat tip to Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net). Smith’s contract is worth up to $1MM, with the righty receiving a $100K signing bonus, $700K salary, and the opportunity to earn an additional $200K in incentives.

Initially drafted by the Padres in 2011, Smith would quickly debut for the team in 2013, albeit to a lackluster 6.44 ERA in 36 1/3 innings. He was traded to the Rays after the 2014 season and would soon undergo Tommy John surgery, missing the 2015 and 2016 seasons. He returned to the Majors in 2018 with the Royals, but once again pitched to an ineffective 6.92 ERA in 78 innings and was designated for assignment. Smith would go on to have short stints with the Brewers and Giants before latching on to a more permanent role with the Athletics during the 2021 season. Over parts of five MLB seasons, Smith holds a high 6.03 ERA in 191 innings with below-average strikeout and walk rates, 21.3% and 10.1%, respectively.

Smith transitioned overseas for the 2022 season, spending the year with the Saitama Seibu Lions of Japan’s NPB league. He was significantly more effective there, throwing 38 1/3 innings of 3.29 ERA baseball with a 23.7% strikeout rate and 9% walk rate.

Smith, who will be 33 years old in April, is now in line to play his second consecutive season overseas. There is little indication that the veteran reliever received any MLB interest prior to his contract with the Eagles. Instead, Smith will head to South Korea and earn significantly more than what he could have made from a potential minor league contract.

KBO’s Hanwha Eagles Re-Sign Felix Pena

By | at

Right-hander Felix Pena is returning to the Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization on a one-year deal that’ll guarantee him $850K, tweets Jee-ho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.

Pena, 33 in February, landed with the Eagles midway through the 2022 season and immediately stepped into their rotation, finding success right out of the gate. He took the ball 13 times, logging a 3.72 ERA and 3.44 FIP with a 24.6% strikeout rate, a 10.2% walk rate and an enormous 70.9% ground-ball rate in 67 2/3 innings. Yoo notes that Pena’s season ended prematurely when a line-drive fractured his nose. Fortunately, it seems he escaped long-term injury.

That 70.9% ground-ball rate vastly outpaced any mark that Pena posted in his pro career in the U.S., although he’d seemingly made that an area of focus in recent seasons. Pena scrapped his four-seamer in favor of a sinker upon joining the Angels in 2018, and he’d turned in a 53.3% grounder rate in Triple-A with the Mets’ Triple-A affiliate this past summer before signing in South Korea.

A solid swingman with the Halos from 2018-20, Pena turned in a combined 215 2/3 innings of 4.34 ERA ball with a 23.6% strikeout rate, a 7.7% walk rate and a 43.4% grounder rate during that three-year run. He’s made 24 starts at the MLB level in addition to another 80 relief outings. He suffered an ACL tear with the 2019 Angels, rebounded with a solid 2020 effort and then posted disastrous results both in the Majors and in Triple-A during the 2021 season. A hamstring strain shelved him for the first six weeks that season, and he was clobbered for seven runs in just 1 2/3 frames upon returning. The Halos passed him through waivers and retained his rights, but he surrendered 61 innings in 68 1/3 Triple-A frames over the remainder of the year in Salt Lake.

With another solid KBO showing in 2023, it’s possible that Pena could put himself back on the big league radar, though he’d be a free agent in advance of his age-34 season, which isn’t ideal. If nothing else, another quality year there could open the door for a larger salary upon re-signing a third contract with the Eagles — or perhaps for a jump to Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. Regardless, the $850K guarantee on Pena’s deal with the Eagles is more than he’d have earned while spending the majority of the season in Triple-A on a minor league deal with an MLB club, so it’s easy to see why he preferred to return for a full season.

KBO’s Kiwoom Heroes Sign Addison Russell, Eric Jokisch

By | at

The Kiwoom Heroes of the KBO League have signed shortstop Addison Russell and re-signed left-hander Eric Jokisch to contracts for the 2023 season, according to reports out of South Korea.  (Hat tip to Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net).  Jokisch will receive $1.5MM, while Russell receives $700K.

This is Russell’s second KBO stint, after previously playing 65 games with the Heroes during the 2020 season.  Russell hit .254/.317/.336 over 271 plate appearances that year, and the Heroes didn’t renew Russell’s contract after the season was up.  Russell has spent the last two seasons posting big numbers with Acereros de Monclova of the Mexican League.

Once one of baseball’s top prospects, Russell spent five seasons with the Cubs (2015-19) and was an important part of the team’s 2016 World Series championship club.  However, in 2018, Russell was issued a 40-game suspension under the MLB-MLBPA Join Domestic Violence Policy, in the wake of the league’s investigation into accusations made by Russell’s ex-wife of physical and verbal abuse during their marriage.  The Cubs chose to tender Russell a contract following the 2018 season, but non-tendered the shortstop following the 2019 campaign.

Jokisch’s Major League resume consists of four games and 14 1/3 innings with the Cubs back in 2014, and he also pitched in the minors with the Marlins, Rangers, Diamondbacks, and Athletics over the course of his nine seasons in affiliated baseball.  The southpaw then signed with the Heroes prior to the 2019 season, and has become a staple for the Seoul-based club, posting a 2.72 ERA over 701 2/3 innings and 117 starts for the Heroes over the last four seasons.

Jokisch turns 34 in July, and with such a comfortable niche carved out for himself in the KBO League, it remains to be seen if he’ll ever explore a return to North American baseball.  There was some indication that MLB teams were interested in the lefty during the 2020-21 offseason, but he ended up returning to the Heroes.

KBO’s LG Twins Walk Away From Deal With Abraham Almonte

By | at

TODAY: According to reports out of South Korea, the LG Twins have pulled out of the contract, due to an issue following Almonte’s physical.

DECEMBER 5: The LG Twins of the Korea Baseball Organization have announced a one-year contract with outfielder Abraham Almonte.  (Hat tip to reporter Sung Min Kim.)  Almonte will receive $400K in salary, a $100K signing bonus, and up to $300K in incentive bonuses.

The 33-year-old Almonte is a veteran of the last 10 Major League seasons, suiting up with seven different teams at the MLB level and also spending some time in the minors with the Brewers’ and Yankees’ farm systems.  Of Almonte’s 455 career games in the Show, 187 were played with Cleveland from 2015-17, and his next highest total was 70 games with the Padres over parts of three seasons.

Almonte consistently found work as a backup or part-time outfielder during his journeyman career, due more to his ability to play all three outfield positions than his bat.  While the switch-hitter has a few flashes at the plate, Almonte hit a modest .235/.302/.374 over 1363 Major League plate appearances.  He entered the 2022 season on a minor league deal with the Brewers, but didn’t reach the majors until after he was dealt to the Red Sox in July.

Heading overseas for the first time in his pro career, Almonte now joins the Twins.  Each KBO League team has up to three roster spots dedicated to non-Korean players, and international players can only sign for a $1MM maximum.  An international player’s first KBO contract can also be only one year in length.

Guillermo Heredia Signs With KBO’s SSG Landers

By | at

The SSG Landers of the Korea Baseball Organization have announced that they have signed outfielder Guillermo Heredia (hat tip to Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net). Heredia will earn $900K, with the possibility of earning an additional $100K in performance bonuses.

Heredia, who was projected to make $1.1MM in his final trip through the arbitration process, was non-tendered by the Braves in November. A veteran of parts of seven Major League seasons, Heredia joined Atlanta after the 2020 season, having been designated for assignment by the Mets, and would go on to win a World Series with the club.

Heredia appeared in 74 games (82 plate appearances) with the Braves during the 2022 season. However, he hit a poor .158/.220/.342 with a colossal 39% strikeout rate and below-average 7.3% walk rate. While never a major factor at the plate, with a career .231/.310/.346 line, 20% strikeout rate, and 8.3% walk rate, the right-handed hitter has a history of above-average fielding, having accrued at least five Outs Above Average (OAA) in five of his seven seasons. Nevertheless, during the 2022 season, Heredia earned 0 OAA while posting 1 Defensive Run Saved and a 0.8 Ultimate Zone Rating.

With the Braves hosting an outfield of three-time All-Star Ronald Acuna Jr., reigning Rookie of the Year Michael Harris, Eddie Rosario, and two-time All-Star Marcell Ozuna, Heredia was evidently deemed non-essential by the club. Instead, Heredia, who turns 32 years old in January, will make the transition overseas. He will earn a raise compared to a minor league salary and can explore a return to MLB if his time in South Korea proves fruitful.

Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

hide arrows scroll to top