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Mike Montgomery To Sign With KBO’s Samsung Lions

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Veteran left-hander Mike Montgomery will finalize a contract with the Samsung Lions of the Korea Baseball Organization today, MLBTR has confirmed. Naver Sports in South Korea first reported that a deal between the Lions and the Ballengee Group client was “likely.”

Montgomery, 31, was in Spring Training with the Mets but didn’t land a roster spot. He quickly signed with the Yankees back on April 5, but his minor league deal contained an opt-out clause that he’s now exercised. Montgomery was hit hard in a tiny sample of 16 2/3 innings with the Yankees’ top affiliate in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, but he of course has a rather successful track record in parts of six Major League seasons.

The No. 36 overall pick by the Royals back in 2008, Montgomery was traded to the Rays 2012’s Wil Myers/James Shields/Jake Odorizzi deal before being flipped to the Mariners in exchange for Erasmo Ramirez in 2015. A third trade in 2016 then sent him to the Cubs in exchange for Daniel Vogelbach, and the Cubs completed the circle when they traded him back to Kansas City in a 2019 swap that sent Martin Maldonado to Chicago.

Montgomery has spent the bulk of his career in Chicago but also appeared with Seattle and Kansas City. On the whole, he’s put together a 3.84 ERA in 541 Major League frames, striking out 18 percent of his opponents against an 8.8 percent walk rate. He’s also generated grounders at a healthy 53.6 percent clip during his big league tenure. He opened the 2020 season on the Royals’ staff but was ultimately limited to just 5 1/3 innings after suffering a lat strain that sent him to the 60-day injured list. That marked the second straight season in which a lat strain had sidelined Montgomery.

According to the Naver report, the Lions are on the lookout for a replacement for right-hander Ben Lively, who was recently diagnosed with a shoulder injury. Montgomery would step onto the Lions’ roster as their second foreign pitcher, the maximum allowed under KBO rules, joining former Phillies righty David Buchanan, who has been excellent for the Lions since joining them for the 2020 season.

Montgomery will have the opportunity to finish out the 2021 season with the Lions. If he enjoys success in his new environs, that could lead to either an offer to return in 2022 or perhaps interest elsewhere overseas or back in North America.

KBO’s Kiwoom Heroes Acquire Jake Brigham, Waive Josh A. Smith

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The Korea Baseball Organization’s Kiwoom Heroes have made an early change in their rotation involving a pair of former big league pitchers. Per Jee-ho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, the Heroes announced that they’ve reacquired righty Jake Brigham and waived right-hander Josh A. Smith.

Brigham had been pitching with the Wei Chuan Dragons Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League. He’ll finish out the remainder of the month with the Dragons, per the report, then join the Heroes after a two-week quarantine period. It’s not clear what type of compensation the two clubs will exchange, but Brigham will be guaranteed $480K for the remainder of the season with another $50K available via incentives.

Now 33 years old, Brigham was a sixth-round pick by the Rangers back in 2006 and for a few years was considered to be among their top 30 prospects. He was traded to the Cubs in the deal that sent Geovany Soto to Texas back in 2012, and he bounced to several teams thereafter. Brigham appeared in a dozen games with the 2015 Braves but was hit hard, and that still stands as his only MLB experience to date.

Despite a lack of success in North American ball, Brigham has carved out quite a nice career pitching in Asia. A brief stint with Japan’s Rakuten Golden Eagles in 2016 didn’t bear much fruit, but he signed with the Heroes in 2017 and spent the next four seasons as a key piece of their rotation. From 2017-20, Brigham racked up 608  1/3 innings and pitched to a 3.70 ERA with a 19.7 percent strikeout rate and a tiny 6.3 percent walk rate.

Brigham was out to a very strong start in Taiwan this year, pitching to a 0.63 ERA with 15 strikeouts against three walks in 28 2/3 frames. That, it seems, was enough to convince the Heroes that he was past the elbow issues which plagued him during 2020 and prompted the team to move in another direction.

As for Smith, his time with the Heroes will prove quite limited. He made just two starts after signing a one-year deal that came with a $500K salary. Smith pitched just 10 innings and was tagged for seven runs on nine hits and five walks with nine strikeouts.

Smith, 33, has quite a bit more Major League experience than Brigham and was in the bigs as recently as last season, when he tossed 26 1/3 innings for the Marlins. He’s also spent time with the Reds, A’s and Red Sox, logging a collective 5.60 ERA (4.72 SIERA) with an 18 percent strikeout rate, a 9.7 percent walk rate and a 40.6 percent ground-ball rate through 184 2/3 innings at the MLB level.

Shin-Soo Choo Signs With SK Wyverns

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Longtime major league outfielder Shin-Soo Choo is joining the SK Wyverns of the Korea Baseball Organization, Tae Woo Kim of SPOTV reports (h/t: Sung Min Kim, on Twitter). He’ll earn $2.4MM in 2021, Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net tweets.

This is a homecoming for the 38-year-old Choo, a South Korea native who played in the majors with the Mariners, Reds, Indians and Rangers from 2005-20. His greatest long-term success came in Cleveland, where the on-base machine batted .292/.383/.463 with 83 home runs and 85 stolen bases in 2,932 plate appearances. But Choo was also an above-average performer in Cincinnati and Texas, evidenced in part by the one-time All-Star’s lifetime .275/.377/.447 line with 218 HRs, 157 steals and 35.4 fWAR over 7,157 trips to the plate.

The 2020 campaign was the last season of the seven-year, $130MM guarantee Choo signed with the Rangers before 2014, and it was his worst offensive effort for the club. Choo hit .236/.323/.400 with five homers in 127 PA, dividing his time between the corner outfield and designated hitter.

Choo has had difficulty in the field throughout his career (minus-68 Defensive Runs Saved, minus-36.4 Ultimate Zone Rating), and with his age and fading offensive numbers also factored in, it appeared he would have trouble landing a guaranteed major league deal in free agency. He’s now heading back to his native country for the largest single-season payday in KBO history, per Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News.

Hyeon-jong Yang Ends Negotiations With Kia Tigers To Pursue MLB Opportunity

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South Korean left-hander Hyeon-jong Yang has ended negotiations with his previous KBO team, the Kia Tigers, and is committed to landing a major league contract, reports Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News. The Tigers had reportedly made Yang, 33 in March, a multi-year offer to return, notes Yoo, but he’ll instead continue to pursue an MLB deal.

Yang’s agent In-gook Choi told Yoo earlier this month his client was only interested in a guaranteed major league contract, saying he “(wouldn’t) take a split deal.” That’s no longer the case, as Yoo reports Yang would now be open to any contract that guarantees him a 40-man roster spot, even if he’ll have to start the 2021 season in the minors.

Finding a spot on a team’s 40-man could still prove to be a tough task, as Yang’s coming off a disappointing 2020. Last season, he pitched to a 4.70 ERA over 172.1 innings, a far cry from his brilliant 2.29 mark the season before. Perhaps more worrisome, Yang’s swing-and-miss and control seemingly both went in the wrong direction last season. The southpaw’s strikeout rate dropped over two percentage points (20% in 2020, down from 22.2% in 2019), while his walk rate nearly doubled (up to 8.6% in 2020 from 4.5% in 2019).

Last year’s numbers belie Yang’s much stronger career track record. In fourteen KBO seasons, all with the Tigers, Yang has compiled a 3.83 ERA with a 19.8% strikeout rate against a 9.4% walk rate.

Latest On Hyeon-Jong Yang, Sung-Bum Na

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Two of South Korea’s top players are still waiting to see if they will join Major League Baseball next season, as Jeeho Yoo of the Yonhap News Agency provides updates on both left-hander Hyeon-Jong Yang and outfielder Sung-Bum Na (Twitter link).

Beginning with Yang, the southpaw is looking for a guaranteed MLB deal rather than a split contract, according to Yang’s agent In-gook Choi.  Yang is willing to “be flexible” about being sent to the minors without his consent, Choi said, “but we won’t take a split deal.”

There hasn’t been much publicly-known information about Yang’s free agency since news broke back in October about his plan to explore a jump to North America.  Yoo goes so far as to describe the longtime Kia Tigers hurler as “almost a forgotten free agent,” perhaps owing to Yang’s subpar 2020 season.  The lefty posted a 4.70 ERA, 19.97 K% and 8.6 BB% over 172 1/3 innings for the Tigers last season, with that ERA standing out as Yang’s highest in the last eight seasons.

It isn’t the platform year that Yang wanted as he prepared to market himself to Major League teams, and it remains to be seen what type of offers he might land as he heads into his age-33 season.  Choi said that “teams that are still trying to fill out their rotation have shown interest” and predicts that Yang will get more attention once Tomoyuki Sugano’s posting period is up on Thursday.  However, a concrete offer for Yang will have to come soon — Choi and Yang have set a mid-January date for a decision either way, so Yang will have adequate time to get ready for the 2021 season whether he pitches in North America or for another KBO League team.

Yang is a full free agent, and thus doesn’t have to face any international signing restrictions or the KBO/MLB posting system.  Whereas Yang’s mid-January deadline is self-imposed, however, Na is subject to a 30-day posting window that lasts until 4pm CT on January 9.  As Yoo plainly puts it, there is “not much buzz around Na so far” as his posting deadline draws near. 

The 31-year-old slugger is coming off one of his finest of his eight seasons with the NC Dinos, as Na hit .324/.390/.596 with 34 home runs over 584 plate appearances.  Despite this performance, Na spent much of his time as a designated hitter in 2020, in the aftermath of a major knee injury that cost him much of the 2019 season.  The status of Na’s knee and how it impacts both his speed and his ability to regularly play the outfield) is of natural concern to any Major League suitors.  Na has already made the trip to North America, Yoo writes, as Na has been working out at the Boras Corporation’s training facilities in California.

NC Dinos Re-Sign Aaron Altherr, Drew Rucinski

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The NC Dinos of the Korea Baseball Organization kicked off the New Year by announcing that they’ve re-signed outfielder Aaron Altherr and right-hander Drew Rucinski to new one-year contracts for the 2021 season. Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net tweets that Altherr’s deal comes with a $1.3MM guarantee and another $100K available via incentives, while Rucinski will be paid $1.6MM with up to $200K of incentives. Altherr is represented by All Bases Covered. Rucinski is represented by Paragon Sports.

Altherr, 30 next month, had some success with the Phillies in 2015 and 2017 but never fully established himself as a big league regular. By 2019, he was designated for assignment multiple times and split the season between three clubs, going just 5-for-61 at the MLB level.

It was a different story in South Korea for Altherr. He mashed opposing pitching at a .278/.352/.541 clip and belted 31 home runs, 20 doubles and seven triples to go along with 22 steals in 25 tries. Altherr was 27 percent better than a league-average hitter, by measure of wRC+, so it’s not a surprise that the KBO-champion Dinos sought to bring him back for a return effort.

Rucinski, who turned 32 just two days ago, will return for a third season with the Dinos. The former Indians and Angels farmhand made it to the Majors as an undrafted free agent, logging a combined 54 innings between the Halos, Twins and Marlins from 2014-18 — albeit without much success. He’s found a home with the Dinos, however, pitching to an identical 3.05 ERA in each of his first two seasons there. Rucinski racked up 183 innings in 2020, averaging 8.2 strikeouts and 2.8 walks per nine frames along the way.

Blue Jays Have Reportedly Made Offer To Ha-Seong Kim

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The Blue Jays are among the teams that have made an offer to free agent infielder Ha-Seong Kim, reports Daniel Kim of ESPN (Twitter link). It’s said to be a proposal of at least five years in length. Daniel Kim reported earlier this week that Ha-Seong Kim was mulling multiple five-year offers.

Kim can play anywhere in the infield and has raked over six-plus seasons in the Korea Baseball Organization. Last season, he hit .306/.397/.523 with 30 home runs in 622 plate appearances for the Kiwoom Heroes. The club posted him earlier this month. MLB teams have until January 1 to work out a deal.

Because of his youth, Kim could appeal to rebuilding and contending clubs alike. The Blue Jays are looking to cement themselves as part of the latter group and have been connected to nearly every high-profile free agent and trade candidate this winter. Toronto has an obvious need for an everyday infielder to join Bo Bichette, Cavan Biggio and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on the dirt. Were Kim to sign with the Jays, they could plug him directly into their gap at third base, or he could take over at shortstop and bump Bichette to the vacant infield position. At the start of the offseason, the MLBTR staff ranked Kim the #7 available free agent and projected a five-year, $40MM contract.

KBO’s Kia Tigers Sign Daniel Mengden

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Right-hander Daniel Mengden has signed with the Kia Tigers of the Korea Baseball Organization, the team announced (hat tip to MyKBO.net’s Dan Kurtz).  The one-year contract will pay Mengden $425K in salary, a $300K signing bonus, and up to $275K in incentives.

The 27-year-old elected to become a free agent after he was outrighted off the Athletics’ 40-man roster following the season.  Mengden only threw 12 1/3 innings in 2020 after recovering from elbow surgery in February, two offseason surgeries to address an intestinal problem, and then a positive COVID-19 diagnosis in early September.

Originally a fourth-round pick for the Astros in the 2014 draft, Mengden was dealt to the A’s as part of the Scott Kazmir trade in July 2015 and he has gone on to spend his entire MLB career in an Oakland uniform.  After a pretty rough 2016 rookie season, Mengden has a 4.06 ERA, 2.22 K/BB rate, and 6.0 K/9 over 230 2/3 innings for the A’s since the start of the 2017 campaign, starting 34 of 46 games.  Neither a big strikeout pitcher or a grounder specialist, Mengden relies on a lot of soft contact, which has led to decent bottom-line results even if advanced metrics aren’t fond of his work.

Mengden becomes the latest experienced big leaguer to head to the KBO League for a better guarantee of both money and playing time, rather than test a very uncertain North American market.  He’ll join former A’s teammate Aaron Brooks on the Tigers roster, as Brooks recently re-signed for a second season with the Gwangju-based team.

NPB/KBO Notes: Dice-K, Mengden, Almonte, Yoon

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Daisuke Matsuzaka is still going. The 40-year-old righty signed a one-year deal with the Seibu Lions in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball earlier this week, according to the Japan Times, rejoining the club for which he starred from 1999-2006. Matsuzaka was with the Lions in 2020 as well, although he spent the year rehabbing from back surgery that prevented him from pitching. The former Red Sox right-hander returned to NPB in 2015 and has since pitched with the SoftBank Hawks and Chunichi Dragons. He’s thrown just 5 1/3 innings since the conclusion of the 2018 season due to injuries, but he’ll hope for a healthier go of it as his career comes full circle with the Lions in 2021.

Some more notes on former big leaguers, the KBO and NPB…

  • Former Athletics right-hander Daniel Mengden has held negotiations with a club in the Korea Baseball Organization, per a report from South Korea’s Naver Sports (Korean language link). There’s no indication a deal has been completed yet. Mengden spent his first five professional seasons in Oakland, where he pitched to a 4.64 ERA/4.58 FIP and posted 6.66 K/9 against 3.03 BB/9 over 302 2/3 innings. He only threw 12 1/3 frames last year after undergoing three offseason surgeries (two to repair an intestinal issue, another on his elbow). The A’s outrighted the 27-year-old in September.
  • The KBO’s KT Wiz have signed outfielder Zoilo Almonte to a one-year, $525K guarantee with up to $250K in incentives, Jee-ho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency relays. The ex-Yankees farmhand, 31, spent the previous three seasons with Chunichi, with which he slashed .316/.375/.484 and hit 31 home runs in 967 plate appearances. As Yoo notes, Almonte will replace 2020 KBO MVP Mel Rojas Jr., who left KT for the NPB’s Hanshin Tigers earlier this month.
  • Retired righty Suk-min Yoon is attempting to become a professional golfer in Korea, Yoo reports. Yoon was a highly successful starter with the KBO’s Kia Tigers, which led the Orioles to sign him to a contract worth a guaranteed $5.75MM over three years entering the 2014 campaign. He never threw a pitch for the Orioles, though, instead spending the year at Triple-A, and the O’s released him in 2015. Yoon returned to the Tigers and pitched in 2015, ’16 and ’18, but he hung up his cleats after a shoulder injury derailed his career.

Doosan Bears Re-Sign Jose Miguel Fernandez, Sign Ariel Miranda

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The Doosan Bears of the Korea Baseball Organization announced that they’ve re-signed first baseman/designated hitter Jose Miguel Fernandez and signed left-hander Ariel Miranda (link via Jee-ho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency).

Fernandez, who’ll be returning for a third season with the Bears, never got much of a look in the Majors despite a considerable track record in the Cuban National Series, but he’s broken out as a star-level hitter in the KBO. The 32-year-old hasn’t missed a game since originally signing with the Bears and has delivered a combined .342/.407/.490 batting line with 36 homers, 63 doubles and more walks (119) than strikeouts (just 96) through 1313 plate appearances. Fernandez’s deal comes with $800K worth of guarantees and an additional $300K available via incentives.

Miranda, 32 in January, will now somewhat remarkably have pitched in virtually every top professional league in the world. The Cuban-born southpaw got his start in the Cuban National Series back in 2007 and has since pitched in the Majors (with the Orioles and Mariners), Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball (SoftBank Hawks) and most recently in Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League (CTBC Brothers).

This past season in Taiwan, Miranda tallied 156 1/3 innings of 3.80 ERA ball with 9.8 K/9 against 3.8 BB/9. That came on the heels of a two-year NPB run that saw him post a 3.37 ERA in 133 2/3 frames. Miranda logged a 4.72 ERA in 221 big league frames between Baltimore and Seattle, tallying a career-high 160 innings with the Mariners back in 2017. He’ll be guaranteed $700K in his new deal with the Bears and can make another $100K via incentives.

The KBO limits each team to three foreign professionals, so assuming right-hander Walker Lockett passes the physical to complete his already agreed-upon deal, they’ll be at capacity.

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