KBO’s Samsung Lions Sign Denyi Reyes
The Samsung Lions of the Korea Baseball Organization have signed right-hander Denyi Reyes, per Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News. The deal is for $800K, including $200K of incentives.
Reyes, 27, has been a fringy major leaguer for the past few years. He was able to toss 7 2/3 innings for the Orioles in 2022 and 19 2/3 innings for the Mets in 2023. He has a combined 6.26 earned run average in that small sample of 27 1/3 frames. He was outrighted by the Mets at the beginning of the offseason and elected free agency.
A few years ago, he was a notable starting pitching prospect with the Red Sox. In 2018, he tossed 155 2/3 innings in the minors with a 1.97 ERA, split between Single-A and High-A. In 2019, he moved up to Double-A and threw 151 1/3 innings. His ERA jumped to 4.16 but he was still just 22 years old at the time.
The pandemic wiped out the minor leagues in 2020 and Reyes’s results have been on the tepid side since then. As mentioned, his small sample of major league work hasn’t been amazing and he also has a 6.30 ERA at the Triple-A level.
The Lions and Reyes will be hoping that a change of scenery can get him back on track. He will also lock in a salary figure higher than if he stayed in North America, where he likely would have been limited to minor league deals. If things go well overseas, Reyes is young enough that he could perhaps return to North America in a year or two, a path taken by players like Erick Fedde, Josh Lindblom, Merrill Kelly and others.
KBO teams are allowed a maximum of three foreign players and this will be the Lions’ third, as they already signed infielder David MacKinnon and right-hander Connor Seabold. As pointed out by Yoo, this means the Lions won’t be re-signing David Buchanan, who has spent the past four years pitching for the Lions with a 3.02 ERA in that time.
Padres Sign Woo-Suk Go To Two-Year Deal
The Padres announced the signing of reliever Woo-Suk Go to a two-year contract with a mutual option covering the 2026 season. He is reportedly guaranteed $4.5MM. Go will make $1.75MM this year and $2.25MM in 2025. There’s a $500K buyout on the option, which is valued at $3MM. San Diego will also owe a $900K posting fee to the LG Twins of the Korea Baseball Organization. The Friars still have five vacancies on the 40-man roster.
The contract also contains a number of performance bonuses. Go would receive an additional $100K if he reaches 70 appearances next season. He can unlock up to $400K in bonuses for 2025 as well: $100K apiece at 40, 45, 55 and 60 games. His 2025 salary could jump by as much as $500K if he reaches 45 games finished next season. Unless the mutual option is exercised, Go will return to free agency two years from now. While he’ll still be well shy of six years of MLB service, most major league deals for players from a foreign professional league include a clause that sends the player back to free agency once the contract expires.
Go, a 25-year-old righty, has pitched parts of seven seasons in the KBO. He has worked as a pure reliever throughout that time, operating as the LG Twins closer for the past five years. After struggling during his first two seasons as a teenager, Go has been a solid bullpen arm for a half-decade.
He has rattled off four seasons with a sub-4.00 ERA, including three campaigns allowing fewer than 2.20 earned runs per nine. Go surpassed 30 saves in each of 2019, ’21 and ’22. He has fanned more than 26% of batters faced in each of the last five years, topping the 30% mark in the last two seasons.
While Go has consistently shown the ability to miss bats, he hasn’t always been around the strike zone. He has walked more than 10% of opposing hitters in four of his seven seasons. Go issued free passes to an alarming 11.6% of batters faced last year, contributing to a 3.68 ERA that made for more of a solid than exceptional platform showing.
Public scouting reports have generally pegged Go as a likely middle reliever at the big league level. Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs writes that Go leans primarily on a mid-90s fastball and low-90s cutter while occasionally mixing in a curveball. That’s an intriguing arsenal, but the fringy control could make him a risk in higher-leverage spots.
The Twins made Go available via the posting system on December 4. That opened a 30-day period for him to sign with a major league club. (Unlike Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, whose posting windows last 45 days, there’s a 30-day opening for South Korean players). That was concluding this afternoon. If Go hadn’t signed with an MLB team by 4:00 pm CST, he’d have remained with the Twins for another season.
San Diego has been one of the sport’s most aggressive teams in targeting players making the jump from Asian professional leagues. They recently signed lefty Yuki Matsui to a five-year, $28MM pact as he came over from NPB. San Diego has added Ha-Seong Kim from the KBO and the likes of Nick Martinez and Robert Suarez from NPB in previous offseasons.
With Josh Hader, Martinez and Luis García hitting free agency, the Padres have Matsui and Suarez as their top two leverage relievers. Go joins that mix alongside righty Enyel De Los Santos, whom San Diego acquired from the Guardians in exchange for Scott Barlow this winter. Go is reportedly in the mix for the ninth inning.
Under the MLB-KBO posting agreement, the release fee is proportional to the size of the contract. For players guaranteed $25MM or less, it is calculated as 20% of the contract value. The $900K fee brings San Diego’s total outlay for Go to $5.4MM.
The deal’s $2.25MM average annual value brings San Diego’s projected luxury tax number to roughly $212MM, according to Roster Resource. That’s $25MM shy of next year’s lowest threshold. Their actual payroll sits in the $156MM range. Even in an offseason defined by budgetary limitations, adding Go shouldn’t have much of an impact on San Diego’s ability to continue bolstering the roster. The Padres still need one or two outfield acquisitions and would benefit from a back-of-the-rotation starter.
Jon Heyman of the New York Post first reported that Go and the Padres were nearing an agreement. The Post’s Joel Sherman reported the sides had agreed to a two-year, $4.5MM guarantee. Dennis Lin of The Athletic was first to report the 2026 mutual option and the specific salary breakdown. The Associated Press reported the bonuses and escalators.
KBO’s Hanwha Eagles Re-Sign Ricardo Sanchez
The Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization re-signed lefty Ricardo Sánchez yesterday, the team announced (h/t to Jee-ho Yoo of Yonhap News). He’ll receive a $100K signing bonus and a $500K salary, while the contract contains another $150K in incentives.
Sánchez signed with the Eagles in April, landing a $400K contract to spend the bulk of the 2023 campaign there. The 5’10” hurler had a decent debut in Korea. He pitched to a 3.79 ERA through 126 innings. Sánchez’s 18.3% strikeout rate was modest, even in the context of a high-contact KBO environment. He showed good control, though, keeping his walk rate around 5%.
Before signing with the Eagles, Sánchez had been in Triple-A with the White Sox. He only made three appearances for the Sox’s top affiliate, leaving him without much time to put together a case for a big league call. His MLB experience consists of three relief appearances for the Cardinals in 2020. Sánchez has also spent minor league time with the Angels, Braves, Mariners, Phillies and Tigers since entering the professional ranks in 2014.
The Eagles have filled their allotted three spots for foreign-born players to open next season. They also re-signed pitcher Félix Peña while brining in former Cubs minor leaguer Yonathan Perlaza (who has never played in the majors) last month.
KBO League’s LG Twins Re-Sign Deok Ju Ham
Left-hander Deok Ju Ham is staying in the Korea Baseball Organization, as Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News (X link) reports that Ham has re-signed with the LG Twins for a four-year deal worth close to $2.9MM, including incentives.
Ham emerged as a possibility for Major League teams last month, when MLB tendered a status check on the southpaw with the KBO League. This procedural move essentially indicates some level of interest in a Korean player from a big league team, though obviously no deal was worked out and Ham opted to stay with the Twins. It could be that he preferred the security of a four-year contract over what might’ve been just a one-year flier from a Major League team for less money, or perhaps even a non-guaranteed sum. Yoo notes that the status check “came as a surprise,” though it isn’t clear if this was surprising to Ham, the Twins, or maybe both parties.
Since Ham has 11 seasons of experience in the KBO League, he was a full free agent, and would’ve available to be signed by a big league team without an additional posting fee going to the Twins. Despite that long track record in South Korea, Ham is still a few weeks shy of his 29th birthday, and might be poised for bigger things now that he has seemingly moved past the injuries that limited him to 33 2/3 innings in 2021-22. Ham bounced back strongly to post a 1.62 ERA over 55 2/3 relief innings for the Twins in 2023, helping the Seoul-based franchise capture the third Korean Series title in franchise history.
Ham has a 3.50 ERA over 501 2/3 innings in his KBO career, comprised of eight seasons with the Doosan Bears and the last three seasons with the Twins. Working mostly as a reliever, Ham has dabbled in rotation work by starting 33 of his 397 career games, but has generally found more success out of the bullpen. Ham isn’t a high velocity pitcher and his 23.94% strikeout rate is solid but unspectacular, and he has been bothered by control problems at various points in his career.
The four-year contract closes the door on Ham’s chances of coming to the big leagues in the near future, barring a trade or some kind of further agreement between the lefty and the Twins. He’ll be 33 at the end of the deal and could still perhaps be a candidate to jump to MLB in 2028, though for now, Ham will focus his efforts on bringing the Twins another championship.
KBO’s Kiwoom Heroes Re-Sign Ariel Jurado
The Korea Baseball Organization’s Kiwoom Heroes have reached a new deal with right-hander Ariel Jurado, Jeeho Yoo of the Yonhap News reports (via X). Jurado will earn $1.2MM in salary on his new one-year contract, and another $100K worth of incentive bonuses are also available.
Jurado’s debut season in the KBO League was a success, as he posted a 2.65 ERA over 183 2/3 innings. Though he struck out only 19.3% of batters, Jurado (who turns 28 next month) had a solid 5.4% walk rate and a staggering 65.5% groundball rate. The righty allowed only seven homers last season, a noteworthy feat in the hitter-friendly KBO.
Jurado’s performance was one of the few highlights of a tough season for the Heroes, who followed up a Korean Series appearance in 2022 with a last-place finish in 2023. It isn’t surprising that the team was eager to retain Jurado as it tries to get back on track, and Jurado cashed in with a substantial raise on his $850K salary from last season. Another nice showing in the KBO League could get Jurado some more attention from MLB clubs, though his grounder-heavy approach doesn’t have as much traditional appeal to scouts as a more strikeout-reliant pitcher.
A veteran of three MLB seasons, Jurado tossed 181 innings for the Rangers and Mets in 2018-20, with all but a single one of those frames coming in a Texas uniform. Jurado posted a 5.97 ERA while working mostly as a swingman, and he started 27 of his 45 Major League appearances. He missed all of 2021 recovering from Tommy John surgery, and then posted a 3.30 ERA over 57 1/3 frames in the Twins’ minor league system in 2022 without getting another call up to the majors.
KBO’s Samsung Lions Sign Connor Seabold
The Samsung Lions of the Korea Baseball Organization announced Friday that they’ve signed former Red Sox and Rockies right-hander Connor Seabold. The Beverly Hills Sports Council client will be guaranteed $900K with another $100K available to him via incentives, per Jee-ho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.
Seabold, 27, was a third-round pick of the Phillies back in 2017 and has twice been traded — first to the Red Sox as part of the deal bringing Brandon Workman and Heath Hembree to Philadelphia, and second to the Rockies last winter in exchange for cash. Colorado released Seabold on the day of the Rule 5 draft, opening a spot to make a selection in the process.
Earlier in his professional tenure, Seabold ranked among the top pitching prospects in both the Phillies and Red Sox systems, but elbow and forearm injuries shortened his 2021 and 2022 seasons. Seabold came to the Rockies with a solid track record in the upper minors, but his lone season with the Rox proved nightmarish both in Colorado and with their Triple-A affiliate in Albuquerque.
Seabold started 13 games and made another 14 relief appearances with Colorado this past season but was tagged for a gruesome 7.52 ERA in the process. He posted a sharp 6.9% walk rate but struggled with a well below-average 16.4% strikeout rate and a sky-high 1.96 HR/9. Seabold’s status as a pronounced fly-ball pitcher did him no favors at Coors Field, and he allowed hard contact a fair bit more often than the average big league pitcher (40.5%). Things didn’t go any better in Triple-A, where Seabold posted a 7.47 ERA in 31 2/3 frames.
As recently as 2022, Seabold tossed 86 2/3 innings of 3.32 ERA ball with Triple-A Worcester in the Sox’ system, striking out 24.7% of his opponents against an excellent 5.3% walk rate. The Lions will be hoping for something closer to that form, and if he’s able to replicate that performance, Seabold would likely position himself to be re-signed on a potential seven-figure guarantee. Given that he’s only heading into his age-28 season, Seabold is certainly young enough that an eventual return to MLB could be in the cards.
Oftentimes that requires multiple strong seasons in the KBO or NPB, although right-hander Erick Fedde, who’s three years older than Seabold, just parlayed one dominant KBO season (wherein he was named league MVP and won the KBO’s Cy Young equivalent) into a two-year, $15MM deal with the White Sox. That’s an ideal scenario for any player headed to Japan or Korea, and Seabold has enough prospect pedigree that if he can reinvent himself (perhaps with the help of a new pitch, as Fedde did), a similar path feels plausible.
KBO’s Doosan Bears Sign Three Former Big Leaguers
The Doosan Bears of the Korea Baseball Organization announced Thursday that they’ve signed a trio of former Major Leaguers (English language link via Jee-ho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency). Right-hander Raul Alcantara, left-hander Brandon Waddell and outfielder Henry Ramos all signed one-year contracts for the 2024 campaign. Alcantara and Waddell are returning after pitching for the Bears in 2023 as well. They’ll be guaranteed $1.3MM and $1MM, respectively. Ramos, who spent the 2023 season with the Reds organization but played for the KBO’s KT Wiz in 2022, is entering his first season with the Bears and will be guaranteed $600K. All three players receive six-figure incentive packages that can boost their earnings as well: $200K for Alcantara, $130K for Waddell and $100K for Ramos.
The 31-year-old Alcantara has steadily raised his profile since heading overseas to sign with the KBO’s KT Wiz in 2019. This will be his sixth season in Asia; after spending the 2019 season with the Wiz and the 2020 season with the Bears, he spent the next two years with the Hanshin Tigers of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. Alcantara returned to the Bears for the 2023 season and will now embark on his third season with them and fourth overall in the KBO.
Although he was never a top-100 prospect, Alcantara at one point landed as highly as fourth among Oakland farmhands on Baseball America’s ranking of their system. The A’s had acquired him and Josh Reddick from the Red Sox as part of the package sending Andrew Bailey to Boston. In parts of two big league seasons, he logged a 7.19 ERA in 46 1/3 frames.
Alcantara has found new life overseas, winning the KBO’s Choi Dong Won Award (their Cy Young equivalent) with the Bears in 2020 and parlaying that into his two-year run in NPB. Overall, he’s posted a 3.04 ERA in 563 1/3 innings, working out of the rotation between the Wiz and the Bears. The Tigers used him primarily out of the bullpen in NPB, where he logged a 3.96 ERA in 96 1/3 frames. It’s not the typical arc, but Alcantara has carved out a lucrative career for himself pitching in Asia’s top leagues; this new contract figures to push his career earnings between NPB and the KBO north of $5MM.
Similarly, Waddell was never a top-tier pitching prospect but is a former fifth-rounder out of Virginia who was once considered a fairly promising arm in the Pirates’ system. The now-29-year-old southpaw pitched in parts of two MLB seasons with four clubs (Pirates, Twins, Orioles, Cardinals), allowing eight runs in 12 2/3 innings.
Waddell has spent the past two seasons pitching overseas between the Bears and the Rakuten Monkeys of Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League. In 18 starts for the Bears this past season, he posted a pristine 2.49 ERA with a 23.4% strikeout rate, 7% walk rate and 70.4% grounder rate. Overall, Waddell owns a 3.30 ERA in 70 CPBL innings and a 2.92 ERA in 169 2/3 innings of KBO action. Now entering a third year pitching professionally in Asia, Waddell has established himself as a seven-figure pitcher and ought to continue garnering opportunities overseas, so long as he stays healthy. At 29 years old, he’s also still young enough for a potential MLB comeback if he continues to thrive in South Korea.
As for Ramos, he’ll head back to Korea after a brief 2023 big league run in Cincinnati. The 31-year-old outfielder (32 in April) appeared in 23 games as a Red and slashed .243/.349/.311 in 86 plate appearances. Ramos is a .226/.312/.306 hitter in 141 trips to the plate as a big leaguer, but he’s mashed at a .301/.362/.485 clip in parts of six Triple-A seasons, adding 55 home runs, 93 doubles, 11 triples and 27 steals over the life of 1700 plate appearances.
Ramos would have been looking at a minor league deal had he remained in North American ball, but he’ll now have the opportunity for everyday at-bats in a league where he’ll earn just shy of the MLB minimum over a full season — while also potentially positioning himself for a raise in the future.
KBO’s NC Dinos Sign Kyle Hart
Left-hander Kyle Hart signed with the NC Dinos of the Korea Baseball Organization, the team announced (h/t to Jee-ho Yoo of Yonhap News). He’ll be paid a $200K signing bonus and a $500K salary, while there’s another $200K in possible incentives.
Hart, a 6’5″ hurler from the University of Indiana, has four major league games to his name. Those came with the Red Sox in 2020. He struggled in that limited look, allowing 21 runs in 11 innings. While he hasn’t gotten back to the big leagues since, he signed successive minor league contracts with the Phillies and Mariners this past season.
The former 19th-round pick only pitched once for the Phils’ top farm team. He was a regular member of the rotation for Seattle’s Triple-A team after signing in June, however. Over 18 starts in the Pacific Coast League, Hart posted a 4.58 ERA through 88 1/3 innings. He struck out a reasonable 22.1% of opponents against a 9.1% walk rate.
This will be Hart’s first overseas stint. He joins former Marlins left-hander Daniel Castano as the club’s two foreign-born pitchers to open the season. They replace Erick Fedde (who signed a $15MM deal with the White Sox) and Tanner Tully. Yoo notes that the team is not retaining outfielder Jason Martin, so they’ll look for an additional hitter to meet their allotted three non-Korean players.
KBO’s KIA Tigers Re-Sign Socrates Brito
The KIA Tigers of the Korea Baseball Organization announced that outfielder Socrates Brito is returning for a third season with the team (hat tip to Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net). Brito will receive $800K in guaranteed money in the form of a $500K salary and a $300K signing bonus, plus he can earn an additional $400K in contract incentives.
It’s easy to see why the Tigers were interested in a reunion, as Brito has hit .298/.349/.478 with 37 homers over his two seasons (1162 plate appearances) in South Korea. The 31-year-old Brito has primarily been the club’s everyday center fielder, while also seeing some action in both corner outfield positions.
Formerly a prospect in the Diamondbacks’ farm system, Brito showed some signs of the dreaded “Quad-A” label, as his impressive .287/.339/.467 slash line over 1960 Triple-A plate appearances didn’t translate to the big leagues, albeit in a pretty limited sample size of MLB playing time — Brito hit only .179/.216/.309 over 218 PA with the D’Backs and Blue Jays from 2015-19. Brito signed minor league deals with the Pirates and Yankees in 2020 and 2021 without any more time in the majors, and Brito also had to endure a personal tragedy in 2020 when his brother passed away from COVID-19.
There hasn’t been any public indication that Brito has received any looks from Major League teams during his tenure in the KBO League, or even that Brito has necessarily been on the lookout for a return to North American baseball. There’s certainly still time for Brito to explore such possibilities in the future, but for now, he has carved a nice niche for himself with the Tigers.
Shin-Soo Choo To Retire After 2024 KBO Season
Longtime big league veteran Shin-Soo Choo announced earlier this week (hat tip to Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News) that 2024 will be his final season in pro baseball. The 41-year-old Choo has played with the Korea Baseball Organization’s SSG Landers for the last three seasons, and he’ll spent one more year with the Landers before hanging up his cleats. Choo is essentially playing for free in 2024, as he re-signed with the Landers for a KBO-minimum salary and will donate the sum to charity.
“I decided it was time for me to put a period on my baseball journey that started in 2001,” Choo said in a team statement to the Korea Times and other outlets. “Since the 2024 season will be my last one, I want to show my gratitude to baseball fans, both at home and on the road, and give them long-lasting memories throughout the year.”
Choo hit .275/.377/.447 over 7157 plate appearances and 1652 games in the majors from 2005-20. A “professional hitter” type, Choo delivered a very solid 123 wRC+ over his 16 MLB seasons, always showing a knack for getting on base even in his less-successful seasons at the plate. Choo was also something of an underrated threat power-wise (218 home runs) and on the basepaths (157 steals in 212 chances), as he authored three 20-20 seasons during his big league career.
An international signing for the Mariners in 2000, Choo spent parts of his first two Major League campaigns in Seattle before being traded to Cleveland in July 2006. It was a shrewd acquisition for the Indians, as Choo went on to become a lineup fixture over seven seasons with the Tribe. However, as the team fell out of contention and Choo’s arbitration numbers began to increase, Cleveland dealt Choo to the Reds as part of a three-team, nine-player trade also involving the Diamondbacks in December 2012.
Choo’s lone season in Cincinnati was the best of his career, as he hit .285/.423/.462 with 21 homers and 20 stolen bases over 712 PA for a Reds team that reached the postseason. This great platform year led to a big free agent payday for Choo in the form of a seven-year, $130MM deal with Texas. Such a contract inevitably comes with high expectations, and unfortunately for both Choo and the Rangers, the deal didn’t really work out.
Between injuries and a declining glove, Choo’s value became entirely tied to his bat, and thus producing only good (111 wRC+) numbers in Texas wasn’t enough. Choo ended up generating only 7.5 fWAR over the length of that seven-year deal, and it didn’t help that the franchise as a whole went into a rebuild period during Choo’s tenure. After a pair of tough playoff losses to the Blue Jays in 2015-16, the Rangers didn’t post another winning record for the remaining four seasons of Choo’s deal.
After garnering only limited interest from big league teams during the 2020-21 offseason, Choo decided to head back to his native country and sign with the Landers (then known as the SK Wyverns). Since Choo had signed with the Mariners as an amateur, he had never played in the KBO League prior to 2021, and his homecoming has been a successful one. Choo has hit .259/.391/.427 over his three seasons with the Landers, and the team won the Korean Series in 2022.