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KBO’s Lotte Giants Sign Charlie Barnes

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The Lotte Giants of the Korea Baseball Organization announced they’ve signed left-hander Charlie Barnes. The former Minnesota Twins southpaw will receive a $610K guarantee, according to Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap. (Brandon Warne of Access Twins was first to report Barnes was signing with Lotte).

A fourth-round pick out of Clemson in 2017, Barnes steadily progressed through the Twins system. He reached the big leagues this year, ultimately making nine appearances (eight starts) for Minnesota down the stretch. He posted a 5.92 ERA over 38 innings while only striking out 11.4% of opposing hitters. After the season, the Twins outrighted Barnes off their 40-man roster.

While it wasn’t an illustrious debut showing, the 26-year-old has generally been effective throughout his minor league tenure. He owns an ERA below 4.00 at every stop through Double-A, and while he struggled during a brief end-of-season stint at Triple-A in 2019, he’d been better there this past season. Barnes tossed 76 innings with the Twins’ top affiliate in St. Paul, posting a 3.79 ERA. That came with a below-average 19.1% strikeout percentage, but Barnes’ 7.4% walk rate and 46.7% ground-ball rate were each a bit better than the league average.

That showing was enough to attract the attention of the Busan-based Giants. While Barnes didn’t have the requisite service time to reject the Twins’ outright assignment, the organization evidently granted him his release to make the move to South Korea. That allows the South Carolina native to lock in a guaranteed salary for 2022 that’s better than he’d have made during his time in Triple-A. If Barnes performs well enough in the KBO to embark upon a major league return at some point down the line, he might also field MLB offers that surpass the near-league minimum salaries he’d have earned over his first few seasons had he remained with Minnesota.

In addition to the Barnes deal, the Giants also confirmed their previously-reported agreement with Glenn Sparkman. As Yoo points out, Barnes, Sparkman and DJ Peters are now locked in as the Giants’ three allotted foreign-born players. That officially closes the books on any chance of Dan Straily and Enderson Franco — both of whom pitched for the Giants last year — returning to the club in 2022.

Sung-bum Na Signs With KBO’s Kia Tigers

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The Kia Tigers of the Korea Baseball Organization announced a six-year contract with free agent outfielder Sung-bum Na. The deal is worth $12.6MM, a figure that’s tied for the loftiest deal in KBO history (h/t to Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap).

Na has appeared on major league radars in each of the past two offseasons. Na’s former team, the NC Dinos, made him available to big league clubs via the posting system last winter. His 30-day window to sign with an MLB team went without an agreement, though, and Na returned to the Dinos this past season.

This winter, Na qualified for domestic free agency in South Korea but remained one year away from unrestricted international free agency. Major League Baseball tendered a status check on Na last month, indicating that at least one major league team expressed interest in the left-handed hitter.

Obviously, Na’s deal with the Tigers forecloses the possibility of his making the jump to the big leagues this year. In all likelihood, it closes the books on any potential MLB future for Na, who turned 32 years old in October. The six-year term will keep him with the Tigers through the end of his age-37 campaign. It seems unlikely he’d make the move stateside at that point of his career.

Na has spent nine seasons playing in Korea’s top league. He’d spent his entire career to date with the Dinos, combining for an impressive .312/.378/.538 line. This past season, Na hit .281/.337/.506 with 32 home runs across 565 plate appearances. That’s not quite his peak form, although that output still checked in 24 points above the KBO league average by measure of wRC+.

Drew Rucinski, Wes Parsons Re-Sign With KBO’s NC Dinos

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Right-handers Drew Rucinski and Wes Parsons have re-signed with the NC Dinos of the Korea Baseball Organization for the 2022 season, reports Jee-ho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency. Rucinski will be guaranteed $1.9MM with another $100K of incentives available, tying him for the second-largest salary of any foreign player in the KBO, per Yoo. Parsons, meanwhile, receives $550K in guarantees, plus another $250K of available incentives.

After totaling 54 innings in a nondescript big league career that included stops with the Angels (2014-15), Twins (2017) and Marlins (2018), Rucinski has emerged as one of the top arms in the KBO. He’s started exactly 30 games in each of the past three seasons, averaging 179 2/3 frames per year and posting consecutive ERAs of 3.05, 3.05 and 3.17 from 2019-21. This past season, Rucinski posted the highest strikeout rate (23.5%) and ground-ball rate (a massive 67.8%) of his KBO career. His 7.3% walk rate was strong as well, and he yielded just 12 homers on the year (0.60 HR/9).

Rucinski will turn 33 next week and would be 34 by the time he could plausibly pitch in the Majors again, but given his standout work in the KBO and his eye-popping ground-ball rates, it’s feasible that he could draw MLB interest on next offseason’s market. He’s now racked up a total of 539 innings with a 3.09 ERA, a 20.5% strikeout rate and a 6.9% ground-ball rate during his time in the KBO. Batted-ball data for Rucinski’s first season in South Korea isn’t publicly available, but last year’s ground-ball rate was no fluke; he sat a 63.8% in 2020 and has a combined 65.7% mark over the past two seasons. At the very least, one would imagine that next winter, in a more stable free-agent climate, Rucinski could pique the interest of big league teams with strong infield defenses.

As he enters his fourth season in the KBO, Rucinski has now guaranteed himself $5.7MM over a four-year term in Korea (not including any of the incentives in his prior deals or this upcoming contract). For an undrafted player who had three stints with the independent Rockford RiverHawks of the Frontier League before even finding consistent minor league work, it’s a fairly remarkable journey — and an encouraging tale for players who continue to grind through minimal pay on the minor league and indie circuits.

As for Parsons, who turned 29 back in September, he was also an undrafted minor league free agent who now finds himself on a similar trajectory. His first two contracts in the KBO have been more modest than those of Rucinski, but he’s secured himself more than a million dollars in total after a seven-year minor league journey netted him just 39 2/3 innings in the Majors with the Braves. Parsons tallied 133 innings during his first season with the Dinos in 2021, pitching to a 3.72 ERA with a 25.6% strikeout rate, a 10.9% walk rate and an excellent 64.3% ground-ball rate of his own.

KBO’s NC Dinos Sign Nick Martini

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DECEMBER 20: The Dinos officially announced Martini’s deal (h/t to Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News). He’ll receive $550K in guaranteed money, with an additional $250K available in incentives.

DECEMBER 16: Outfielder Nick Martini is in discussions with the NC Dinos of the Korea Baseball Organization, according to a report from Naver Sports (h/t to Sung Min Kim). If a deal is finalized, the 31-year-old will make the jump to South Korea after spending the past eleven years in affiliated ball.

Martini has suited up in the majors in three of the last four seasons. The left-handed hitter broke in with an impressive .296/.397/.414 line across 179 plate appearances with the A’s in 2018. Martini didn’t get much of an opportunity to follow up on that strong rookie showing, though, struggling to a .226/.330/.323 mark in 109 trips to the dish between Oakland and the Padres the following season. He didn’t appear in the big leagues in 2020, although the Illinois native returned to play in 25 games with his hometown Cubs this past season. Chicago outrighted Martini off their 40-man roster at the end of the year, and he elected minor league free agency shortly thereafter.

While Martini doesn’t have a particularly lengthy track record in the majors, he owns a strong minor league resume. Over parts of six Triple-A seasons, he’s a .298/.399/.437 hitter. Martini has walked in a robust 13.4% of his plate appearances at the minors’ highest level while only punching out 17.8% of the time. He’s mostly limited to the corner outfield and doesn’t bring a ton of power to the table, but that combination of a keen eye and strong bat-to-ball skills should allow Martini to continue to post strong on-base marks if he makes the jump to the KBO.

Were Martini’s agreement to be finalized, that’d officially close the book on the possibility of Aaron Altherr returning to the Dinos. KBO teams are only permitted to carry three foreign players on their rosters, and the Dinos already employ pitchers Drew Rucinski and Wes Parsons. Altherr has spent the past two seasons with the Dinos, hitting .276/.354/.529 as the club’s regular center fielder. Naver reports that the team had interest in keeping the 30-year-old (31 next month) in the fold, but Altherr has explored the possibility of returning to MLB or making the jump to Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball this offseason.

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.

KBO’s Samsung Lions Re-Sign Jose Pirela, David Buchanan

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The Samsung Lions of the Korea Baseball Organization announced yesterday that they’ve re-signed former big leaguers José Pirela and David Buchanan. Pirela will be guaranteed $800K, with an additional $400K in available incentives; Buchanan is guaranteed $1.2MM, with $500K possible in incentives (via Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net).

Pirela, 32, suited up in the majors each season from 2014-19. The right-handed hitter spent his first two seasons with the Yankees, then logged three-plus years with the Padres and had a brief stop with the Phillies. He posted a .257/.308/.392 line in just more than 300 MLB games before making the jump to Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball over the 2019-20 offseason.

After a year with the Hiroshima Carp, Pirela moved to South Korea last winter. He hooked on with the Lions and hit a strong .284/.357/.490 with 28 home runs over 616 plate appearances. That showing impressed the Daegu-based club enough they’ll bring him back for a second season.

Buchanan spent two seasons in the big leagues, serving as a member of the Phillies’ rotation from 2014-15. The righty tossed 192 1/3 innings of 5.01 ERA ball in Philadelphia before heading to Japan in advance of the 2017 campaign. After three seasons with the Yakult Swallows, the Georgia native signed with the Lions for 2020.

He’s spent the past two seasons in the Samsung rotation, tossing 348 innings in Korea’s top league. Buchanan has an impressive 3.21 ERA in that time, striking out 19.1% of opponents while walking only 7.2% of batters faced.

KBO’s SSG Landers Re-Sign Wilmer Font

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The SSG Landers of the Korea Baseball Organization have officially re-signed right-hander Wilmer Font to a one-year deal that includes a $1.1MM base salary and a $200K signing bonus, tweets Daniel Kim of MBC Sports. Font can also earn an additional $200K via incentives.

It’ll be the second season with the Landers for Font, who earned an even $1MM in a successful debut campaign. The 31-year-old righty stepped right into the Landers’ rotation and made 25 starts, pitching to a 3.46 ERA with a strong 26% strikeout rate, a 7.5% walk rate and a 55% ground-ball rate that towers over any ground-ball percentage posted by Font during his six big league seasons. Font also induced a whopping 26 infield flies — just over a quarter of the fly-balls he allowed were harmless pop-ups — and surrendered only a dozen long balls on the season (0.74 HR/9).

Prior to signing in South Korea, Font had quickly become a well-traveled big league journeyman. While the results weren’t strong, teams continued to be enamored of Font’s raw movement and velocity; he was designated for assignment four times from April 2018 to July 2019 but traded each time before even reaching waivers, as he went from the Dodgers to the A’s, from Oakland to Tampa Bay, from the Rays to the Mets, and from the Mets to the Blue Jays.

Along the way, Font posted an unsightly 5.54 ERA but averaged better than a punchout per frame while sitting just shy of 95 mph with his fastball. His best work came with the Rays, for whom he pitched to a 3.o7 ERA with a 22.8% strikeout rate and 9.6% walk rate through 41 innings from 2018-19. However, Font struggled with Tampa Bay early in 2019, pushing the Rays to DFA him — at which point the Mets offered up a young pitcher (minor league righty Neraldo Catalina) to take their own shot on him.

With another strong season in the KBO, it stands to reason that Font could garner free-agent interest from either Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan or from Major League teams. The newfound ground-ball rate is of particular intrigue, given Font’s career 38% mark in 151 2/3 Major League innings. For now, he’ll take home a second straight seven-figure salary — no small sum for a player who has spent 14 years in professional baseball but had yet to even go through arbitration in the Majors.

KBO’s LG Twins Re-Sign Casey Kelly

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Right-hander Casey Kelly has re-signed with the LG Twins of the Korea Baseball Organization, reports Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News. Kelly will receive a base salary of $1.2MM, with a further $300K available in incentives. The Twins also signed Adam Plutko a few days ago, bringing them up to the maximum of two foreign pitchers. As Yoo points out, this means they will not be bringing back left-hander Andrew Suarez.

Kelly was a highly-touted youngster, being a first-round draft pick of the Red Sox in 2008. Boston gave Kelly a bonus of $3MM, which was a franchise record at the time. He quickly came to be considered one of the top prospects in the game, appearing on Baseball America’s Top 100 for four consecutive seasons from 2010 to 2013 and headlining the trade that sent Adrian Gonzalez to the Red Sox.

The righty made his debut with the Padres in 2012 but had to be shut down due to Tommy John surgery after just six starts. He eventually made it back to the big leagues for brief stints with San Diego in 2015 and Atlanta in 2016, but with uninspiring results. He then had a nice showing with the Giants in 2018, logging an ERA of 3.04 over 23 2/3 innings.

That run with the Giants was enough to pique the interest of the LG Twins, who brought Kelly to Korea for 2019. Since then, Kelly has got into a groove and thrived, spurring rumors each year that he would be considering a return to MLB. In 2019, he threw 180 1/3 innings over 29 starts, putting up an ERA of 2.55. In 2020 and 2021, his ERA slipped just over 3.00, but he still made at least 28 starts and threw over 170 innings in each campaign. In total, over the three seasons with the Twins, he’s thrown 525 1/3 innings with an ERA of 2.96. That sort of consistent production has drawn the attention of MLB teams, but the 32-year-old is staying in Korea for a fourth straight season.

As for Suarez, he will no longer have a place on the Twins’ roster. The southpaw was a second-round pick of the Giants in 2015 and made his MLB debut in 2018. He made 29 starts that year and logged 160 1/3 innings with an ERA of 4.49. 2019 was a bit of a setback, as he bounced between Triple-A and the big leagues, with an ERA close to 6.00 at each level. With 2020’s shortened MLB campaign and canceled minor league season, he was frequently optioned and only got to throw 9 2/3 innings.

He signed with the LG Twins for 2021 and seemed to get back on track, appearing in 23 games, 22 of them starts, with an ERA of 2.18 and 126 strikeouts over 115 1/3 innings. Despite that strong showing, the club has seemingly moved on to Plutko, which leaves Suarez available to pursue other opportunities. Given that Suarez is just 29 years old and coming off a strong campaign, he should garner plenty of interest from other clubs.

Glenn Sparkman Agrees To Sign With KBO’s Lotte Giants

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Right-hander Glenn Sparkman has agreed to sign with the Lotte Giants of the Korea Baseball Organization, according to Naver Sports (hat tip to reporter Sung Min Kim).  The deal will be official once Sparkman passes a physical.

This is the second straight year that Sparkman has signed with an international team.  He inked a deal with the Orix Buffaloes of Nippon Professional Baseball last June, but posted only a 6.88 ERA over 17 innings.  Before heading to Japan, Sparkman had signed a minor league deal with the Twins, but didn’t see any time on the active roster before being released last May.

A veteran of four Major League seasons, Sparkman posted a 5.99 ERA with the Blue Jays and Royals from 2017-2020, tossing all but one of his 180 1/3 career MLB frames in a Kansas City uniform.  Despite an underwhelming ERA and strikeout totals as a big leaguer, Sparkman has been much more solid in the minors, with a 2.88 ERA and a 22.85 K% over 378 2/3 frames, though most of his bigger strikeout rates came prior to his 2015 Tommy John surgery.

With numbers suggesting a “Quad-A” type of career arc to date, Sparkman has a chance to re-invent himself in the KBO, and at least bank some guaranteed salary at a time when many free agents in a similar position are waiting out the lockout.  Sparkman doesn’t turn 30 until May, so a solid performance with the Giants could open some new doors for a return to MLB next winter, or perhaps more lucrative opportunities pitching in South Korea or Japan.

KBO’s LG Twins Sign Adam Plutko

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The LG Twins of the Korea Baseball Organization have signed right-handed pitcher Adam Plutko (h/t to Sung Min Kim). Plutko will receive a base salary of $500K, with a further $300K available in incentives.

Plutko was selected by Cleveland in the 11th round of the 2013 draft and quickly became a well-regarded prospect. For four straight years, from 2014 to 2017, he was considered one of the organization’s top 30 prospects by Baseball America, topping out at #14 in 2016. The reports on him as a prospect noted that his lack of elite stuff could be counteracted by his command and intelligent deployment of his arsenal.

Plutko saw sporadic big league action in his first few seasons, oscillating between the majors and minors, as well as bouncing from the rotation to the bullpen. His longest MLB stretch came in 2019, as he threw 109 1/3 innings with an ERA of 4.86 in 21 games, 20 of them starts. From 2016 to 2020, he logged 217 1/3 total innings with an ERA of 5.05. Those early prospect evaluations about his control proved correct, as evidenced by his 6.3% walk rate. However, he only managed a meager strikeout rate of 16.9%.

Prior to the 2021 season, he was acquired by the Orioles for cash considerations. Baltimore largely used him out of the bullpen, as he appeared in 38 games but just one start. He threw 56 1/3 innings, his walk rate jumping up to 10.6% and his ERA ending up at 6.71. He was designated for assignment in mid-August, clearing waivers and accepting an assignment to the minors. He appeared in 10 Triple-A games before electing free agency at the end of the season.

Plutko, 30, likely would have had to settle for a minor league deal if he stayed in North America. By going to Korea instead, he gets some certainty about his job situation for 2022, with the possibility to earn some extra money as well.

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