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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, tweets Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap. He’ll make $1.5MM for the 2024 season.

Kelly heads back to the Seoul-based franchise for a sixth season. MLB.com’s Jon Morosi suggested earlier this month that the 34-year-old could be on MLB radars. While it’s possible he found some amount of big league interest, he’s clearly comfortable with the KBO’s defending champions.

A former first-round pick of the Red Sox, Kelly struggled to a 5.46 ERA with three clubs over parts of four MLB seasons between 2012-18. He has been a durable and effective starter since making the jump to Korea for the 2019 campaign. He has started between 27 and 30 games in each of his five KBO seasons, topping 166 innings annually. This past season’s 3.83 ERA was the highest of any those years.

The Twins also re-signed outfielder Austin Dean last week. That duo is joined by newcomer Dietrich Enns as the team’s three foreign-born players. Righty Adam Plutko did not re-sign and is seeking MLB opportunities this winter.

KBO’s LG Twins To Allow Woo-Suk Go To Explore MLB Opportunities

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11:12pm: LG announced that while they’ll allow Go to explore MLB offers, they’ll reevaluate the posting decision with the pitcher after his market crystallizes (relayed by Dan Kurtz of MyKBO). It seems the club prefers to keep open the possibility of rejecting Go’s posting at a later date if his contract offers are low — which would reduce the team’s posting fee since that is directly tied to the guarantee that Go receives.

10:18pm: The LG Twins of the Korea Baseball Organization have agreed to make closer Woo-Suk Go available to MLB teams via the posting system, according to a Korean-language report from Spochoo. It is unclear when the posting will be made official.

Go, 25, appeared on the MLB radar last week. Reports emerged that MLB had tendered a status check on the 5’11” right-hander, the standard procedure when one or more big league teams is showing interest in a KBO player who is eligible to be posted. Go subsequently requested that the Twins allow him to explore MLB opportunities. While the club is under no obligation to do so, the Spochoo report indicates they decided to defer to the player’s wishes.

This doesn’t guarantee that Go will sign with a major league team. Once the posting is made official, it will open up a 45-day window for his camp to negotiate with MLB clubs. If Go doesn’t sign in that time period, he’d return to the LG Twins.

Over parts of seven seasons at South Korea’s top level, Go carries a 3.18 ERA. He struggled as a teenager in his first two years before turning in a 2.17 ERA or better in three of his next four seasons. That mark jumped to 3.68 over 44 frames in 2023. He struck out an excellent 31.1% of opposing hitters but walked an elevated 11.8% of batters faced. Go had demonstrated better control in 2021-22 and has fanned at least 28% of hitters in three straight seasons.

Last offseason, Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs pegged Go as a 40 FV prospect. His report noted that Go sits in the mid-90s and has touched 98, suggesting he could fit in the middle innings for an MLB team. The pitcher has plenty of high-leverage experience in Korea, where he has topped 30 saves on three occasions.

Since Go will be made available via the posting system rather than unrestricted international free agency, a signing MLB team would owe compensation to the Twins. They’d pay a posting fee equal to 20% of the contract, assuming the guarantee checks in below $25MM.

Yankees, Giants Expected To Pursue Jung Hoo Lee

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South Korean outfielder Jung Hoo Lee is one of the more intriguing players who’ll be available in this year’s free agent class. The Kiwoom Heroes will make him available to MLB teams via the posting system at some point in the next few weeks.

In an appearance on the MLB Network this afternoon, Jon Morosi suggested the Yankees and Giants are likely to pursue Lee once his free agency opens (X link). It’s not surprising that either team would have interest. Previous reports have indicated San Francisco and New York had done scouting work on Lee during his run in the Korea Baseball Organization. He fits the profile that both teams are known to be targeting this winter.

Lee, 25, is a left-handed hitting center fielder. A hit-over-power offensive player, Lee posted an OPS north of .900 in each season between 2020-22. He won the KBO MVP award with a .349/.421/.575 showing in ’22 but had a disappointing platform year. Lee’s power production plummeted; he hit only six home runs while slugging .455 over 86 games and 387 trips to the plate. His season ended in July when a left ankle injury required surgery. That came with an estimated three month rehab process, so it’s not expected to affect his availability for Spring Training.

While that’s clearly not the season Lee envisioned preceding his jump to the majors, he’ll still be a target for various teams. He’s atypically young for a free agent. Evaluators praise his pure contact skills and strike zone awareness, although there could be some division among teams about whether he projects as an MLB center fielder. Lee’s fringe power would be more alarming if a club feels he’s a better defensive fit in the corner outfield.

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told reporters at the GM Meetings they’d like to add two outfielders — ideally ones who hit from the left side. Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi has suggested that adding athleticism to their outfield is an offseason priority. Not coincidentally, those clubs are generally speculated as strong fits for Cody Bellinger. Lee is a riskier bet without a body of work against big league pitching but isn’t going to approach Bellinger’s contract.

Of course, there’ll be more teams involved once the posting process gets underway. The Padres have previously been tied to Lee, while teams like the Mariners, Nationals and Royals make sense on paper. Seattle needs corner outfield help and is looking for high-contact hitters. Washington and Kansas City have short-term uncertainty in the outfield and could view Lee as a candidate for a free agent strike as they look to pull out of rebuilds. Given his youth, he’d align better with their competitive timelines than would most free agents.

Dietrich Enns To Sign With KBO’s LG Twins

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Former big league left-hander Dietrich Enns is finalizing a deal with the LG Twins of the Korea Baseball Organization, per Dan Kurtz of My KBO. The terms of the contract are not yet known.

Enns, 32, was selected by the Yankees in the 19th-round of the draft back in 2012. Enns was swapped to the Twins in 2017 and made his major league debut that same year, though he struggled to a 6.75 ERA in just four innings of work. The lefty spent the next several seasons in the minor leagues, bouncing between the Twins, Padres, and Rays organizations before returning to the big leagues in 2021 with Tampa Bay. Enns found more success with the Rays that season, pitching well in multi-inning relief. In 22 1/3 innings of work across nine appearances, Enns posted a 2.82 ERA with an even stronger 2.32 FIP, striking out 28.4% of batters faced while walking just 6.8%.

Despite that strong performance in 2021, Enns was unable to secure a big league role for the 2022 season and instead departed for a role overseas, joining the Seibu Lions of Japan’s NPB. Enns pitched very well for the Lions in his first NPB season, with a 2.94 ERA in 122 1/3 innings of work across 22 starts. Unfortunately, that success did not carry over to 2023 as the lefty struggled to a 5.17 ERA in just 54 innings of work.

Still, Enns’s success in both the majors in 2021 and NPB in 2022 make him an interesting addition to the Twins, who Kim Geun-han of MK Sports indicates hope that Enns can replace five-year MLB veteran Adam Plutko on the club’s pitching staff for the 2024 campaign. Plutko, for his part, is hoping to return to stateside ball this offseason after posting a 2.49 ERA across 49 starts in Korea the past two seasons.

Austin Dean Re-Signs With KBO’s LG Twins

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Outfielder Austin Dean re-signed with the LG Twins of the Korea Baseball Organization this week (h/t to Dan Kurtz of MyKBO). He’ll receive a $300K signing bonus, an $800K salary and up to $200K in incentives.

Dean will stick with the KBO’s defending champions for a second season. The right-handed hitter signed with the Seoul-based Twins last December. He had a strong year against KBO pitching, connecting on 23 home runs in 139 games. Dean ran a .314/.376/.517 slash line through 583 trips to the plate.

A fourth-round draftee of the Marlins in 2012, Dean has played parts of five seasons at the big league level. The bulk of that time came with Miami between 2018-19. He picked up sporadic reps with the Cardinals and Giants over the subsequent three seasons. Dean hit .228/.286/.390 over 365 plate appearances against big league arms.

Dean joined pitchers Casey Kelly and Adam Plutko as foreign players on the Twins’ roster in 2023. Kelly and Plutko are back in free agency. The New York Post’s Jon Heyman reported this week that Plutko was looking to make it back to MLB after two seasons with the Twins. MLB.com’s Jon Morosi tweeted on Tuesday that Kelly could be on major league teams’ radars as well.

KBO Reliever Woo Suk Go Requests To Be Posted For MLB Teams

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TODAY: Go and his representatives have asked the Twins to post him for MLB teams this winter, according to reporter Daniel Kim and MyKBO.net’s Dan Kurtz.  (Both links via X.)  It isn’t yet known if the Twins will agree to Go’s request.

NOVEMBER 15: Major League Baseball has tendered a status check with the Korea Baseball Organization on LG Twins closer Woo Suk Go, reports Jee-ho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency. The status check is a formal procedure when big league clubs are showing interest in a player with the potential to be posted. Yoo writes that MLB has also tendered a status check on Kiwoom Heroes outfielder Jung Hoo Lee, for instance, although it’s been known for months now that Lee would be posted for MLB clubs, making the status check even more of a formality. Go, however, has not been the subject of potential posting rumors until now.

Go, 25, closed out the Twins’ victory in this year’s Korean Series — the team’s first KBO title in nearly three decades. He’s been the primary closer for the Twins for the past five seasons, pitching to a collective 2.39 ERA with 139 saves, a 30.2% strikeout rate, a 10% walk rate and a ground-ball rate north of 60% in that time. Go missed time this past season with a lower back injury but still pitched 44 innings of 3.68 ERA ball with a 31.1% strikeout rate, 11.6% walk rate and massive 65.8% grounder rate.

To be clear, tendering a status check is not a definitive declaration that the player will be making the jump to Major League Baseball. The Twins have yet to publicly indicate that they’ll post Go for big league clubs, apparent interest in him notwithstanding. Even if he is posted, there’s no guarantee he’ll ultimately sign in the Majors. For instance, star KBO outfielder Sung Bum Na was posted by the NC Dinos two seasons ago but ultimately returned to his former club after failing to reach an agreement. He played another season with the Dinos before becoming a free agent and signing a four-year, $12.6MM contract to remain in the KBO with a new team, the Kia Tigers.

That said, Go is still an interesting name to keep on the radar for MLB fans. Like Lee and Japanese ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto, he’s quite a bit younger than the majority of professional players from Asia who become available to big league clubs, having only turned 25 in early August. The 5’11”, 198-pound Go has a heater that sits mid-90s and was regularly in the 94-96 mph range during his recent Korean Series appearance. Prior to the season, Sports Info Solution’s Ted Baarda noted in his WBC preview that Go’s fastball has topped out at 98 mph. Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net offered up some video of Go recording a save in Game 3 of the Korean Series earlier this month.

Because he has fewer than nine seasons of KBO service time, Go would need to enter Major League Baseball through the posting system. Upon being posted by the Twins, he’d have 30 days to agree to a contract with an MLB team. The team that signs Go would owe a posting/release fee to his former KBO club. That would be equal to 20% of the contract’s first $25MM, 17.5% of the next $25MM and 15% of any subsequent dollars committed to Go. (That’s on top of the money paid to Go himself — not subtracted from his guarantee.)

Interestingly, Go and Lee are brothers-in-law, though that holds little bearing beyond its sheer anecdotal nature. Perhaps the pair would prefer to land on the same team or at least in close proximity to one another if indeed both land in North American ball, though that’s purely speculative. And as always, the driving force behind the vast majority of free-agent signings is simply the strength of the offer in both years and dollars.

Despite his youth, Go has seven seasons of service time in the KBO, Yoo notes in his piece for Yonhap. Even if he doesn’t end up joining a big league team this offseason then, he’ll be on track to accrue the requisite nine years of KBO service time needed to qualify for unrestricted international free agency. That would allow him to field offers from MLB clubs in the 2025-26 offseason and make the jump to MLB without being subject to the posting system.

KBO’s Lotte Giants Re-Sign Aaron Wilkerson

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The Lotte Giants of the Korea Baseball Organization announced Thursday that they’ve re-signed righty Aaron Wilkerson to a one-year deal for the 2024 season (English link via Jee-ho Yoo of the Yonhap News Agency). He’ll be guaranteed $750K and can take home another $200K of incentives.

Wilkerson, 34, logged big league time with the Brewers each season from 2017-19 but posted  a 6.88 ERA in a combined 35 1/3 innings. He’s since pitched in Triple-A with the A’s and Dodgers in addition to stints in Japan’s NPB and, in 2023, in the KBO.

His first year of KBO ball was a strong one. The 6’3″ righty joined the Giants midseason and made 13 starts with a sterling 2.26 ERA in 79 1/3 frames. Wilkerson fanned 24.8% of his opponents against a tidy 6.1% walk rate alongside a strong 56.1% grounder rate.

The journeyman righty, who’s pitched in four different MLB teams’ minor league systems in addition to stints in indie ball and in Asia, will now take home a nice seven-figure salary that can reach nearly $1MM — a nice windfall at this stage of an 11-year grind through professional ball.

Perhaps he can further parlay strong overseas results into an MLB return in his late 30s. Even if that’s not in the cards for Wilkerson, a nice 2024 campaign would likely put him in position to re-sign in the KBO and continue earning at levels he’s rarely, if ever seen to this point in his career.

Adam Plutko Eyeing MLB Return

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Right-hander Adam Plutko is eyeing a return to the Major Leagues after a strong two-year stint in the Korea Baseball Organization, tweets Jon Heyman of the New York Post. The 32-year-old hurler landed with the 2023 KBO champion LG Twins after a largely nondescript five-year run between Cleveland and Baltimore and has found plenty of success pitching overseas.

In two seasons with the KBO’s Twins, Plutko has pitched to a 2.40 ERA in 285 1/3 innings. He’s still not a prolific strikeout arm, fanning just 21.7% of his opponents, but Plutko sports a sharp 6% walk rate and a solid 46% ground-ball rate during his time overseas. That’s a marked increase over his MLB numbers; from 2016-21 he logged 273 2/3 innings between the Indians and Orioles, recording a 5.39 ERA, 17% strikeout rate, 7.2% walk rate and 28.8% ground-ball rate — primarily working as a fifth/sixth starter with Cleveland.

Given his age, Plutko isn’t likely to command particularly long-term interest if MLB clubs are intrigued to roll the dice and see what he can bring to the table in a return affair. But he’s a year younger than Josh Lindblom was when he signed with the Brewers out of South Korea (three years, $9.125MM) and two years younger than Drew Rucinski was last year when he signed with the A’s following a successful KBO run of his own (one year, $3MM).

A low-cost deal for one or two years doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility. Even if guaranteed rotation spots are tough to come by, Plutko could be targeted by clubs looking for an affordable swingman to serve as a sixth or seventh starter in the inevitable event that injuries thin out their more prominent rotation options. With 51 career relief outings in the Majors, Plutko is no stranger to being a long man in the bullpen.

Erick Fedde Drawing Interest From MLB Clubs

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Right-hander Erick Fedde is drawing interest from major league clubs after spending 2023 with the NC Dinos of the Korea Baseball Organization, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post.

Fedde, 31 in February, was once a highly-touted prospect, with the Nationals selecting him 18th overall in the 2014 draft. But he didn’t find much success in the big leagues, making 102 appearances for the Nats from 2017 to 2022 with a 5.41 earned run average.

As mentioned, he joined the Dinos for this past year and the move to Korea could hardly have gone better for him. He threw 180 1/3 innings over his 30 starts with his ERA finishing at an even 2.00. He struck out 29.5% of batters faced while walking just 4.9% and also kept the ball on the ground at an incredible 70% clip. For reference, the MLB ground ball rate was 42.5% in 2023. The overall results were strong enough for him to win the Choi Dong-won award, which is given to the best starting pitcher in the league each year, making it roughly the KBO equivalent of the Cy Young.

That figures to make Fedde an interesting wild card entry into the free agent pitching market this offseason, with MLBTR having given him an honorable mention in our recent Top 50 Free Agents post. The results for North American pitchers returning from a stint in Korea are mixed, with some recent examples ranging from Merrill Kelly to Chris Flexen to Josh Lindblom. Kelly has made 127 starts for the Diamondbacks over the past five years with a 3.80 ERA. Lindblom had great results in Korea but posted a 6.39 ERA in his 20 appearances for the Brewers. Flexen had a 3.66 ERA for the Mariners over 2021 and 2022 but was torched for an ERA of 6.86 in 2023.

Each pitcher is unique and precedent can only tell us so much about Fedde as an individual. Given his excellent 2023 campaign and status as a former top prospect, he should garner plenty of interest, particularly from the clubs priced out of the top of the market. Pitchers like Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Aaron Nola and Jordan Montgomery seem positioned for nine-figure guarantees while sizeable eight-figure deals should be attainable by guys like Sonny Gray, Eduardo Rodriguez and Shota Imanaga.

Kelly got a two-year, $5.5MM deal from Arizona going into 2019. A year later, Lindblom got $9.125MM plus incentives over three years from the Brewers. Flexen got $4.75MM over two years from the Mariners prior to 2021, plus a vesting option for 2023. Fedde may be able to top those figures through a combination of his superb season, his former prospect pedigree and inflation, but the guarantee still figures to be lighter than the top available arms.

Latest On Jung Hoo Lee

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KBO star Jung Hoo Lee has been one of the more intriguing potential free agents of the upcoming offseason ever since reports back in January indicated that he would be posted by his KBO club, the Kiwoom Heroes. A wrench was thrown in that plan when he recently required ankle surgery, though Jon Morosi of MLB.com reports today that Lee is still expected to sign with a major league club this winter.

Lee, 24, already has an impressive résumé in his short career. He won Rookie of the Year in the KBO in 2017 by hitting .324/.395/.417 when he was just 18 years old for most of the season. He continued to take steps forward in the years to come, especially in 2022. He launched 23 home runs and finished with a batting line of .349/.421/.575 for a wRC+ of 175. He struck out in 5.1% of his plate appearances while walking in 10.5% of them. He stole five bases and won a fifth straight Gold Glove, with all of those attributes leading to a Most Valuable Player award.

This year won’t be the perfect platform season for him, as he’s been a notch below that MVP form. His walk rate went up to 12.7% but he hit just six home runs, leading to a .319/.407/.456 batting line. His 142 wRC+ indicates he’s still been well above league average but not quite as outrageously as he was last year. To top things off, he’s now missing the final months of the season due to his aforementioned ankle surgery.

Perhaps he or the Heroes would have given some second thought to his posting, maybe delaying it by a year, though it seems the plan has yet to be altered. Morosi relays that neither party has given any indication that the path forward has changed.

Lee will turns 25 years old later this month and will no longer be considered an “amateur” by MLB rules and won’t be subject to the bonus pool system. He will therefore be free to sign a contract of any length or dollar amount, with the signing club also responsible for paying a posting fee to the Heroes. That’s tied to the size of the contract itself, with the MLB team owing the KBO club 20 percent of the contract’s first $25MM, 17.5 percent of the next $25MM and 15 percent of any dollars thereafter. That fee is on top of any dollars guaranteed to the player himself, and subsequent earning (e.g. performance incentives, contract options) are also subject to the posting system once they become guaranteed to the player.

This winter’s free agent class is headlined by starting pitchers, with very few impact bats expected to be available. Assuming Lee’s ankle heals up in the months to come and he is posted as expected, he figures to still draw plenty of interest.

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