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KBO’s Samsung Lions Sign Lewin Diaz

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The Samsung Lions of the Korea Baseball Organization announced this week that they’ve signed first baseman Lewin Díaz (relayed on X by Dan Kurtz of MyKBO). The CAA Sports client receives a $50K salary with up to $20K in incentives for the stretch run. The Lions also paid a $100K release fee to the Diablos Rojos del Mexico, the Mexican League team with which Díaz had been playing. Samsung waived outfielder Ruben Cardenas in a corresponding move.

Díaz, 27, was an MLBTR staple during the 2022-23 offseason. He changed teams via waivers or minor trade four times that winter. The Orioles eventually succeeded in sneaking him through waivers and kept him in Triple-A for all of last season. Díaz had a decent year in the minors, hitting .268/.362/.442, but never got an MLB look from Baltimore. He qualified for minor league free agency over the winter and signed a non-roster deal with the Nationals.

Washington released Díaz at the end of camp. He didn’t land another affiliated deal, instead making the move to Mexico. The left-handed hitter has mashed at a .376/.452/.647 clip with 19 homers across 75 games in that very hitter-friendly league.

Díaz was a fairly well-regarded prospect with the Twins early in his pro career. Minnesota dealt him to the Marlins as part of a deal for reliever Sergio Romo in 2019. Díaz didn’t hit major league pitching over parts of three seasons in Miami, running a .181/.227/.340 slash in 112 games. He has been an above-average Triple-A batter, posting a .258/.341/.479 mark in nearly 1200 plate appearances at the level.

Astros’ Eric Lauer Granted Release, Will Reportedly Pursue KBO Opportunity

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The Astros released left-hander Eric Lauer, who’d been with their Triple-A club in Sugar Land, per the transaction log at MiLB.com. It seems that’ll pave the way for the former Brewers and Padres hurler to sign in the Korea Baseball Organization. Per KBO reporter Daniel Kim, Lauer will sign a deal with the Kia Tigers for the remainder of the 2024 campaign.

Lauer, 29, opened the season with the Pirates’ Triple-A affiliate after signing a minor league deal in spring training and joined Houston’s Triple-A club a couple months later after opting out of that deal with Pittsburgh. He’s had rough results on the whole in Triple-A this season, working to a combined 5.26 ERA between the two teams. However, he’s been on a good run as of late (2.86 ERA over his past five starts), has maintained respectable strikeout/walk rates throughout the ’24 season (25.3%, 9.1%), and of course has a big league track record of some note.

Selected by the Padres with the No. 25 overall pick in the 2016 draft, Lauer made his big league debut with San Diego in 2018 and spent two seasons pitching at the back of the Friars’ rotation. He logged a 4.40 ERA over 53 appearances (all but one of them as a starter) and looked well on his way to cementing himself as a serviceable back-end option. The Padres traded him to Milwaukee alongside Luis Urias in a trade shipping Trent Grisham and Zach Davies back to San Diego. Lauer made four ugly appearances during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, yielding 16 runs in 11 innings, but bounced back in a major way the following year.

Early in the 2021 season, Lauer added a slider to his repertoire and saw his results take off. He posted a 3.19 ERA and fanned 24% of his opponents in 118 2/3 innings that year, including a minuscule 2.41 ERA after incorporating his new breaking ball. The strong results continued into 2022, and Lauer wound up pitching to a combined 3.47 ERA in 277 1/3 frames across the two seasons, fanning 23.8% of his opponents against an 8.7% walk rate.

Lauer’s 2022 season was slowed by a shoulder issue, however, and he battled shoulder and elbow troubles the following year as well. The lefty saw his average fastball plummet from 93.3 mph in 2022 to 91.2 mph in 2023. In 46 2/3 big league frames, he was tattooed for a 6.56 ERA as his K/BB rates both went in the wrong direction. The Brewers sent him to Triple-A Nashville to try to get him right, but Lauer’s struggles continued, as he was knocked around for a 5.15 ERA there and did not return to the big leagues.

Lauer clearly hasn’t recaptured his 2021-22 form in Triple-A this season, but he’ll aim to do so down the stretch in the KBO with a Kia club that’s currently sporting the league’s best record at 60-41. It’s feasible that a big showing overseas could lead to interest from MLB clubs this winter, but it could also open the door for Lauer to re-sign with the Tigers for the 2025 campaign. He’d pitch all of next season at 30 years of age, and if he can either rebound to 2021-22 form or reinvent himself with some new offerings (a la Erick Fedde), an additional year in the KBO could catapult him back onto the big league radar.

KBO’s NC Dinos Sign Eric Jokisch, Release Daniel Castano

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The NC Dinos of the Korea Baseball Organization announced yesterday that they’ve signed left-hander Eric Jokisch to a $100K deal for the rest of the season. The news was relayed (on X) by Dan Kurtz of MyKBO, who tweeted earlier this week that the Dinos were waiving southpaw Daniel Castano to facilitate a deal for another foreign player.

KBO teams can have a maximum of two non-Korean pitchers on their roster. The Dinos signed former Red Sox left-hander Kyle Hart over the offseason. He’s having a very nice season, working to a 2.47 ERA through 124 innings. Castano had a more pedestrian 4.35 mark in 111 2/3 frames. He struck out 18.7% of opponents against a tidy 5.3% walk percentage.

Castano is a former 19th round pick by the Cardinals who went to the Marlins in the Marcell Ozuna/Sandy Alcantara/Zac Gallen trade. He’d go on to make 24 appearances over parts of four seasons in Miami, working mostly as a depth starter. Castano turned in a 4.47 ERA in 88 2/3 big league innings. He made the jump to Korea last offseason, not long after being waived by Miami in September.

Jokisch is also a former big leaguer, though he’s been far more established in Korea. His major league work consists of four appearances for the Cubs a decade ago. The Northwestern product subsequently kicked off a very successful KBO run in which he turned in a 2.85 earned run average over five seasons as a member of the Kiwoom Heroes. His tenure with the Heroes came to an unfortunate end last summer when he suffered a muscle tear in his leg that led the team to release him. (Injured players would still count against a KBO team’s foreign player limit.) The 35-year-old gets a new opportunity to resume his career.

In one other bit of KBO news — or more accurately, lack thereof — reporter Daniel Kim tweets that July 31 was the Korean league’s trade deadline. There were zero trades made.

KBO’s Doosan Bears Sign Jared Young

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The Doosan Bears of the Korea Baseball Organization announced they’ve signed utilityman Jared Young (h/t to Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News). The Old Dominion product had been playing in Triple-A with the Cardinals.

Young was a 15th round pick by the Cubs back in 2017. He reached the majors late in the 2022 season and appeared in 22 games over the next two years. The left-handed hitter ran a .210/.290/.435 line with a pair of home runs across 69 trips to the plate. Chicago placed Young on waivers at the start of last offseason. St. Louis nabbed him from their rival and successfully passed him through waivers during Spring Training.

Assigned to their top farm team in Memphis, Young was hitting .285/.411/.506. He connected on 11 homers and walked at a strong 14.3% clip against an 18.5% strikeout rate. The Cards never called him up, but his excellent work in the upper minors gets him a look in the KBO. That surely comes with a nice pay bump compared to his Triple-A salary.

KBO teams are only permitted to roster three foreign-born players. As a corresponding move for signing Young, they waived outfielder Henry Ramos. The 32-year-old signed with the Bears over the winter. He was hitting .306/.360/.482 in 80 games. That’s strong production, but Yoo notes (on X) that the Bears’ coaching staff has taken issue with Ramos’ defense and baserunning. A veteran of 12 minor league seasons, Ramos has logged brief MLB time with the Diamondbacks and Reds.

Elieser Hernández Signs With KBO’s LG Twins

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The LG Twins of the Korea Baseball Organization announced that they have signed right-hander Elieser Hernández, as relayed on X by Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net. The righty will make an annual salary of $440K. KBO clubs are only allowed to roster two foreign-born pitchers, so the Twins have put righty Casey Kelly on waivers to make room for Hernández.

Hernández, 29, once looked like he was emerging as a viable rotation candidate with the Marlins but has endured his share of struggles in recent years. He started 17 times for the Fish over 2020 and 2021, logging 77 1/3 innings with a 3.84 earned run average. He struck out 26.3% of batters faced in that time and limited walks to a 5.7% clip.

Unfortunately, he hasn’t been near that kind of form since then. He struggled in 2022, getting bumped to the bullpen and also to the minors at times, finishing the year with a 6.35 ERA at the major league level. He was traded to the Mets going into the 2023 season but that ended up being a lost year for him as a shoulder strain prevented him from pitching in the majors and limited him to just 9 1/3 minor league frames pitched on a rehab assignment.

Here in 2024, he spent some time with the Dodgers and Brewers. He has a 6.32 ERA in 15 2/3 innings at the major league level and a 2.83 ERA in 28 2/3 innings in Triple-A. He recently elected free agency after being designated for assignment by Milwaukee and will now look for a rebound overseas.

Plenty of pitchers have been able to reinvent themselves in the KBO and have then come back to Major League Baseball, including Josh Lindblom, Merrill Kelly and Chris Flexen. The most recent success story is Erick Fedde, who won MVP in the KBO last year and parlayed that into a two-year deal with the White Sox. He’ll make $15MM on that pact and seems likely to be traded to a contender since he has a 2.99 ERA through 19 starts this year. That would be an absolute best-case scenario for Hernández but there’s plenty of precedent for guys going down this road and doing well for themselves.

As for Kelly, 34, he pitched for a few MLB clubs last decade but has been with the LG Twins since 2019. He has a 3.25 ERA in almost 1,000 innings for that club but his ERA has jumped to 4.51 this year. He was striking out 23% of batters faced in 2022 but that number dropped to 17.3% last year and is down to 13.9% in 2024.

Jordan Balazovic Signs With KBO’s Doosan Bears

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Right-hander Jordan Balazovic has signed with the Doosan Bears of the Korea Baseball Organization, according to Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News. Balazovic had previously been pitching for the Twins on a minor league deal he signed back in February.

Balazovic, 25, was selected by Minnesota in the fifth round of the 2016 draft and has spent his entire professional career with Minnesota to this point. The right-hander posted big numbers in the lower minors early in his career, including a 2.69 ERA with a 33.9% strikeout rate in 93 2/3 innings of work split between the Single-A and High-A levels back in 2019. That was enough to get the Ontario native some attention on top-100 prospect lists, and his respectable 3.62 ERA in 20 starts as a 22-year-old at the Double-A level did little to dissuade that.

Unfortunately, the wheels came off from Balazovic a bit from there. Since being promoted to the Triple-A level to open the 2022 campaign, the righty has struggled mightily at the level with a 6.35 ERA with an 11.5% walk rate against a 25% strikeout rate in 68 appearances at the level. A difficult 2022 season saw the youngster move to the bullpen in 2023 and, while he made his big league debut with the Twins last year and posted a 4.44 ERA in 24 1/3 innings of work, that didn’t help him with his control as he walked 15.2% of batters faced in Triple-A last year. Those struggles led the Twins to designate him for assignment this past winter, though he re-upped with Minnesota on that aforementioned minor league pact and returned to Triple-A with the club to start the season.

Balazovic’s results have once again left something to be desired as he’s posted a 5.60 ERA in 35 1/3 innings of work this season. Those numbers hide the fact that Balazovic has looked greatly improved in terms of underlying performance, however. He’s struck out 30.1% of batters faced this year, the first time he’s punched out 30% of more of his opponents in half a decade. He’s paired that with an elevated but manageable 9.2% walk rate, and he’s even posted an impressive 56.2% groundball rate. That’s left him with strong peripherals, including a 3.21 FIP and 3.18 xFIP, but his results have been skewed by an elevated .368 BABIP allowed and a shockingly low 58.2% strand rate.

Doosan has clearly looked past Balazovic’s shaky results and is hoping that those strong peripherals in Triple-A this year can translate to success overseas. The right-hander now figures to head to Korea in hopes of finding success there and, perhaps, eventually establishing himself enough to get another crack at the big leagues at some point in the future. KBO teams are only allowed to carry a maximum of two foreign-born pitchers on their rosters, and to make room for Balazovic on the roster Yoo notes that the club parted ways with right-hander Raul Alcantara. Alcantara, 31, pitched for the A’s in the majors in 2016 and ’17 and posted a 4.76 ERA in 12 starts with Doosan this year.

KBO Infielder Hyeseong Kim Hires CAA Ahead Of Expected Posting For MLB Teams

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Infielder Hyeseong Kim, who stars for the Korea Baseball Organization’s Kiwoom Heroes, has hired CAA Baseball to represent him ahead of his expected move to Major League Baseball in the upcoming offseason, reports Jeeho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency. (Kim’s name is commonly written as Kim Hye-Seong or Hye-Seong Kim, but Yoo further notes via X that CAA specifically informed him the infielder will go by Hyeseong Kim if he indeed moves to North American ball.)

Kim, who’ll turn 26 next January, is old enough and has enough experience in a major foreign league to be considered a “professional” under Major League Baseball’s international standards. He’ll be exempt from international amateur free-agent bonus pools and thus able to sign a major league contract for any length and dollar amount with an interested team.

The former double-play partner of current Padres infielder Ha-Seong Kim, the younger Kim is  a lifetime .301/.361/.398 hitter in 876 games with the KBO’s Heroes. One of the primary knocks on his MLB outlook throughout his pro career has been a lack of power, but he’s begun to change that narrative in his age-25 campaign. The lefty-swinging Kim has appeared in 50 games and taken 224 plate appearances this year but has already set a new career-high with eight home runs. (He’d previously hit seven homers in two different seasons, including 2023.) Overall, Kim is slashing .309/.366/.471 this season — his fourth consecutive season with a .300 or better average.

Kim has also picked up seven doubles and a triple this season in addition to going 15-for-16 in stolen bases. The 6.7% walk rate Kim has posted so far in 2024 is a career-low — perhaps a sign of a more aggressive approach as he tries to showcase for MLB teams, speculatively speaking — but his minuscule 9.8% strikeout rate is also the lowest of his career. Kim has dropped his strikeout rate in every season of his pro career, beginning with a 25.2% mark back in 2018. He’s now seen as a hitter with plus contact skills, well above-average speed — he’s 195-for-226 (86.3%) in career stolen base attempts — and a strong glove in the middle infield.

Prior to the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Baseball America’s Kyle Glaser ranked Kim ninth among the top-ten MLB prospects for fans to track (landing behind current big leaguers Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Jung Hoo Lee and Yariel Rodriguez). Glaser called Kim a plus defender at second base (and a capable defender at short) with a “preternatural feel for contact,” good pitch recognition and the ability to catch up to good velocity. At the very least, he could profile as a utilityman with high-end speed and contact skills, though it should come as little surprise if there are clubs who view him as a potential regular at second base. Given his age, Kim should find big league interest — particularly if he can continue his newfound power output.

CAA most famously represents Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani but is also one of the industry’s largest firms, representing dozens of clients, including high-profile names like Willy Adames, Sandy Alcantara, Corbin Carroll, Jack Flaherty, Max Fried, Lucas Giolito, Jon Gray, Josh Hader, J.T. Realmuto and Trea Turner — among many others (as can be seen in MLBTR’s Agency Database).

KBO’s Hanwha Eagles Sign Jaime Barria, Release Felix Pena

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May 28: The Guardians announced that Barria’s contract has officially been sold to the Eagles. Hanwha announced over the weekend that they’ve released former MLB righty Felix Pena (h/t to Dan Kurtz of MyKBO). KBO teams are limited to carrying two foreign-born pitchers on their rosters, so the Eagles had to move on from either Pena or Ricardo Sanchez to add Barria. Cutting Pena was the straightforward call, as he has struggled to a 6.27 ERA over nine starts. (Sanchez has a solid 3.35 mark in his nine appearances). Pena spent parts of three seasons with Hanwha, posting a sub-4.00 mark between 2022-23 before this year’s struggles.

May 25: Right-hander Jaime Barria is finalizing a deal with a team in the Korea Baseball Organization, according to MLBTR’s Steve Adams. It’s not yet clear which club Barria is working out a deal with. Barria is currently in the Guardians organization on a minor league deal but it’s common for teams to release players in order to pursue overseas opportunities, often in exchange for cash considerations from the player’s new club. Kim Geun-han of MK Sports (Korean language link) reports today that Barria is poised to sign with the Hanwha Eagles.

Barria, 27, signed with the Angels as an international free agent out of Panama and made his big league debut with the club back in 2018 during his age-21 season. The righty enjoyed a strong rookie campaign with a 3.41 ERA and 4.58 FIP across 26 starts for the Halos that year, although he suffered a sophomore slump the following season as he pitched to a 6.42 ERA in 19 appearances (13 starts) while swinging between the bullpen and rotation during the 2019 campaign. Barria would stay in that swing role for the next two seasons, pitching to roughly average results (106 ERA+) across 89 innings of work during that time.

The 2022 season saw Barria pitch in something closer to a pure relief role, with just one start and five outings where he threw more than fifty pitches. It was perhaps the best season of his career, as he posted an excellent 2.61 ERA that was 54% better than league average by measure of ERA+ to go along with a 4.11 xERA and 4.13 SIERA, all of which were career best figures for the righty. Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse for Barria last year as his home run rate spiked, leaving him with a 5.68 ERA and 6.07 FIP in 82 1/3 innings of work across 34 appearances, six of which were starts.

After that difficult 2023 campaign, Barria was outrighted off the Angels roster and elected free agency, leading him to his aforementioned minor league pact with the Guardians. He’s remained in multi-inning relief during his time at Cleveland’s Triple-A affiliate in Columbus, and while his 4.81 ERA in 13 appearances is nothing to write home about he’s also shown a surprising proclivity for strikeouts this year, punching out batters at a 28.1% clip across his 24 1/3 innings of work.

It’s possible that uptick in strikeout rate is what caught the attention of a team overseas, and Barria now figures to head to Korea in hopes of re-establishing himself as a potential big league option. KBO teams are only allowed to carry a maximum of two foreign-born pitchers on their rosters, meaning that if Barria’s new team has already reached that limit they’ll have to part ways with another arm to make room for the righty.

Tigers Release Drew Anderson To Sign With KBO’s SSG Landers

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The Tigers have agreed to release right-hander Drew Anderson to sign with the SSG Landers of the Korea Baseball Organization. The Landers send cash to the Tigers in return. According to Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News (X link), Anderson will make a $570K salary.

Anderson, 30, was in the Detroit organization after signing an offseason minor league deal. He’d been pitching in long relief at Triple-A Toledo, tossing 14 innings across nine appearances. Anderson punched out 16 hitters with a 3.86 ERA in a solid stint that caught the attention of the Landers. He would have had a tough time securing a spot in a Detroit bullpen that has been one of the game’s best, so the Tigers were content to let him pursue the KBO job.

This will be Anderson’s first stint in Korea. He pitched in Japan with the Hiroshima Carp between 2022-23, working to a cumulative 3.05 ERA over 115 innings. Anderson last appeared in the big leagues in 2021, throwing a career-high 22 innings with a 3.27 ERA for the Rangers. The former third-round draftee has also had brief stints with the Phillies and White Sox and played in parts of five MLB campaigns overall.

In a corresponding move, the Landers released right-hander Robert Dugger. KBO teams are only allowed to carry two foreign-born pitchers on their roster. Signing Anderson meant they had to move on from either Roenis Elías or Dugger. While Elías has a pedestrian 4.63 ERA over four starts, Dugger had a very rough showing. The right-hander was rocked for a 12.71 ERA in his six KBO appearances.

A former 18th-round pick of the Mariners, Dugger pitched to a 7.17 ERA with four MLB teams between 2019-22. He spent all of last season in Triple-A with the Rangers, where he posted a 4.31 ERA over 29 starts in an extremely hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League setting.

Hyun Jin Ryu Signs Eight-Year Deal With KBO’s Hanwha Eagles

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Hyun Jin Ryu is headed back to South Korea. The KBO’s Hanwha Eagles announced the signing of Ryu to an eight-year deal worth 17 billion won (equivalent to just over $12.4MM). The contract also contains an opt-out provision at an unspecified date. Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News relayed the details (on X). A Korean-language report from X Sports first reported the 17 billion won guarantee. It’s the largest contract in KBO history.

Ryu debuted with the Eagles in 2006 at age 19. He won the league’s MVP award as a rookie thanks to a 2.23 ERA through 201 2/3 innings. The southpaw turned in a 2.80 ERA in 190 appearances over a seven-year run with the Eagles. After the 2012 season, Hanwha announced they’d make Ryu available to major league teams through the posting system.

Under the MLB-KBO posting rules in effect at the time, teams placed blind bids for the right to exclusive negotiation with the player. The Dodgers bid upwards of $25MM to win that auction. That opened a 30-day window for them to sign Ryu. The sides eventually came to a six-year, $36MM guarantee with various performance bonuses.

It turned out to be an excellent investment. Ryu pitched to an even 3.00 ERA over 30 starts in his debut campaign, finishing fourth in NL Rookie of the Year balloting. He turned in a 3.38 mark during his sophomore season before losing almost all of 2015-16 to shoulder and elbow problems. Ryu spent time on the injured list with various lower-body concerns between 2017-18 but remained effective when healthy. He finished his Dodger tenure with a flourish, turning in 182 2/3 innings with an MLB-best 2.32 ERA in 2019. He secured an All-Star nod and a runner-up finish to Jacob deGrom in NL Cy Young balloting.

That stellar year couldn’t have been timed any better. Ryu returned to free agency that winter, this time with all 30 teams eligible to put in offers. He signed a four-year, $80MM pact with the Blue Jays going into 2020. Through two seasons, it looked like a strong move. Ryu turned in a 2.69 ERA over 12 starts during the abbreviated schedule, finishing third in Cy Young balloting. He wasn’t as dominant the following season but managed a reasonable 4.37 ERA while starting a career-high 31 games.

Ryu’s final two seasons were impacted by injury. He battled forearm issues early in the ’22 campaign. An attempt to pitch through the injury was unsuccessful and he required Tommy John surgery in June. That kept him off an MLB mound well into the 2023 season.

The Jays reinstated Ryu on August 1. He managed 11 starts in the final two months, working to a 3.46 ERA. That’s solid production but wasn’t without some worrisome indicators. His fastball velocity sat at a personal-low 88.6 MPH. He struck out just 17% of opposing hitters and allowed 1.56 home runs per nine innings. The Jays deployed him in a very sheltered role. Skipper John Schneider called on Ryu to work beyond five innings just once. He only faced an opposing hitter for a third time in an appearance on 33 occasions.

That all worked against Ryu as he returned to the open market for what’ll be his age-37 season. At the beginning of the offseason, he said it was his preference to remain in MLB. It’s very likely that Ryu could’ve gotten a big league contract offer — the Mets and Padres reportedly showed interest — but it’s possible the market from major league teams wasn’t as robust as he’d anticipated.

Whatever the rationale, Ryu is returning to his home country. He’d spoken before about wanting to pitch for the Eagles between the end of his time in MLB and his overall playing career. He’ll do just that on a record-setting contract that runs through his age-44 season.

This almost certainly marks the end of Ryu’s time in the major leagues. He has had an excellent MLB career, allowing 3.27 earned runs per nine in 186 appearances. He tossed 1055 1/3 innings, struck out 934 batters, and collected 78 wins. A two-time Cy Young finalist, he also received down-ballot MVP votes in 2019 and ’20. Ryu made nine playoff starts over five separate seasons, working to a 4.54 ERA in 41 2/3 frames.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

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