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Kwang-Hyun Kim

Kwang Hyun Kim Moves Into Cardinals Rotation

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The Cardinals will utilize lefty Kwang Hyun Kim in the rotation, manager Mike Shildt tells reporters including Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Twitter link).

Kim, 32, had been slotted into the relief unit after battling for a starting job in camp. He has made just one relief appearance, picking up a save but allowing an earned run on two hits.

The southpaw will step into the rotation spot left when Carlos Martinez recently hit the injured list. Whether Kim can hang onto a rotation job will depend upon many factors, with his performance and the duration of Martinez’s absence likely chief among them.

Kim, a long-time Korea Baseball Organization standout, joined the Redbirds over the offseason. He’s earning at a $4MM rate this year and is guaranteed the same in 2021, with an annual $1.5MM incentive package also available.

Cards Set Roles For Kwang Hyun Kim, Carlos Martinez

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The Cardinals have settled upon some pitching roles for the outset of the season, as Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was among those to cover on Twitter. Newly inked southpaw Kwang-Hyun Kim is headed to a high-leverage relief role, while right-hander Carlos Martinez will step back into the rotation.

This represented one of those good problems in need of resolution. Lacking any health issues to drive a decision, the Cards had to take their pick between two rather appealing choices to round out the starting staff.

Kim inked a two-year, $8MM deal under which the club also posted a $1.6MM fee to his former KBO outfit. Kim was sharp in Spring Training, throwing eight scoreless frames with 11 strikeouts and just one walk. While he made his mark as a starter in Korea, Kim will have to earn his way back into the rotation in St. Louis. Alternatively, he could etch out a prominent gig at the back of the pen, perhaps as a closer.

There’s a model to follow in Martinez himself, who was a high-quality MLB starter for years before health issues intervened. He ended up being shifted back into the pen, where he rung up saves in half of his 48 appearances in 2019. Now, the talented 28-year-old will get a chance to reestablish himself as a starter. It makes sense that the club elected to give him another crack at the rotation. Beyond his established ceiling in that role, Martinez is owed $11.5MM in 2021 with two high-priced club options to follow.

NL Notes: Crawford, Kim, Mikolas, Cecil, Johnson

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Brandon Crawford gave the San Francisco Chronicle’s John Shea a rundown of his daily routine, as the Giants shortstop is busy balancing his time with his wife and four young children alongside workouts and engaging in whatever baseball activities he can manage from his house.  On this particular day, for example, Crawford and the Giants’ team yoga instructor met via video conferencing for a session “based on baseball mobility and movements that we need,” Crawford said.

Some more from the National League…

  • While Crawford is one of many players staying at home with his family during the shutdown, newly-signed Cardinals left-hander Kwang-hyun Kim is in St. Louis while his family is in South Korea.  Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak told reporters (including MLB.com’s Anne Rogers) that Kim could potentially return to Korea while Major League Baseball is on hiatus.  “I can only imagine the mental challenge [Kim is] under with his wife and children back in South Korea, trying to adapt to a new country, a new team, and then have all this thrust upon him,” Mozeliak said.  “So we’re trying to navigate that as best we can, but…clearly this has not been easy for him, and I think all of us could understand why.”
  • From that same teleconference earlier this week, Mozeliak also provided updates on some injured Cardinals players.  Miles Mikolas continues to make progress after suffering a flexor tendon strain in February and receiving a platelet-rich plasma injection, as Mikolas will soon throw a bullpen session and is currently throwing from 120 feet.  Brett Cecil recently took time off from his hamstring injury rehab for personal reasons, but Mozeliak said Cecil will resume the process next week.  Cecil suffered what manager Mike Shildt described as a “fairly significant” right hamstring strain in mid-March, and while no specific timeline was put in place, it was thought that Cecil was facing “multiple weeks of treatment.”
  • After pitching in Japan in 2019, Pierce Johnson signed a two-year, $5MM deal with the Padres this offseason to mark his return to North American baseball.  As Johnson told Fangraphs’ David Laurila, “a few other teams kicked the tires” on the right-hander’s availability, and he also came “really close to taking” an offer to remain with the Hanshin Tigers.  Ultimately, Johnson chose the Padres and MLB in order to bring his family back closer to home.  Johnson posted only a 5.44 ERA over his 44 2/3 career Major League innings with the Cubs and Giants in 2017-18, though his season in Nippon Professional Baseball greatly elevated his stock, as the righty posted a 1.38 ERA, 14.0 K/9, and 7.00 K/BB rate over 58 2/3 relief innings for the Tigers.

NL Central Notes: Pirates, Reynolds, Newman, Cardinals, Goldschmidt, Flaherty

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The Pirates are more likely than not to land outside the playoff picture in 2020, but they’ve not given up the notion of wreaking some havoc on the NL Central this year. To do so, however, Bryan Reynolds and Kevin Newman will need to avoid the dreaded sophomore slump, writes Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. True enough, Reynolds and Newman came out the gate strong in 2019, posting 3.2 fWAR and 2.4 fWAR, respectively. And yet, teaming their rookie duo with Josh Bell’s breakout bat still only amounted to the 20th-ranked offense by runs scored (758 runs), 19th by wRC+ (92). Beyond these three, the other two Pirates rounding out their top-5 by wRC+ in 2019 now play for different teams (Starling Marte, Corey Dickerson), and the sixth is a pitcher (Steven Brault). Immediately upon the close of 2019, the Pirates had planned to give Brault a go as a two-way player, but with new leadership up and down the organization, it’s unclear what his role will be. Regardless, Jarrod Dyson is the biggest addition made the to position player group this winter. Reynolds and Newman are core pieces of this lineup, and the good news is this: if they do slump in their sophomore seasons, they should have enough leash to find their way back. Let’s jump from the bottom of the NL Central to the top and check in with the reigning divisional champs…

  • As Spring Training games kick off (weather permitting), hitters around the league are putting their offseason swing adjustments to the test. Paul Goldschmidt, Harrison Bader, and Matt Carpenter of the Cardinals will all be deploying tweaked swings to some degree as they seek the kind of offensive consistency that eluded the trio last year, per Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Goldy was the most successful of the three, but his fortunes at the plate sunk and fell seemingly on a monthly basis, and he never quite settled into the type of season to which he is accustomed. A .260 BA was his lowest mark since 2012 by almost thirty points, and while his power remained decidedly above average, it did drop from the astronomical heights of the couple seasons prior. Still, even in a down year, Goldy produced 16% more offense than average. Any substantive regression to his career norms should be enough to raise Goldy’s stock back to the level of franchise cornerstone where the Cardinals expected him to be when they acquired him for three players and a pick last winter.
  • Unsurprisingly, Cardinals manager Mike Shildt wasted no time in naming Jack Flaherty their opening day starter, tweets Goold. Flaherty drove the Cardinals second half push to 91 wins and their first divisional crown since 2015. Who follows Flaherty in the rotation is a more compelling question for those in Cardinals camp this spring. There are no shortage of options, from rotation holdovers like Dakota Hudson and Miles Mikolas, to former ace Carlos Martinez, to newcomer Kwang-Hyun Kim. Adam Wainwright will be somewhere in the rotation after a rejuvenating 14-10 season in which he posted a 4.19 ERA/4.36 FIP across 31 starts. The bridge from Flaherty to Wainwright (to Chris Carpenter to Matt Morris) is a tangible reminder of the Cardinals’ institutional success. 2007, Wainright’s first season as a starter, remains the only losing season the Cards have suffered this century (they went 78-84 and finished in third place).

Cardinals Sign Kwang-hyun Kim

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3:57pm: The Cards have introduced Kim. It’s a two-year, $8MM deal, Goold tweets. Kim can also achieve up to $1.5MM in incentives in each year of the contract, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today (via Twitter). The deal includes protection against a minor-league demotion, per Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap (via Twitter).

1:28pm: The Cardinals have struck a deal with Korean pitcher Kwang-hyun Kim, according to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (via Twitter). Contract details aren’t yet known, but a formal introduction has already been scheduled.

It emerged yesterday that Kim was not only in talks with the Cards, but had traveled to St. Louis in an effort to finalize a contract. While the seriousness of the interest was pretty clear, we now have a final resolution.

Long considered one of the most talented hurlers in his native South Korea, Kim nearly came to the majors way back in 2014. While the Padres were willing to pay a $2MM posting fee, the club couldn’t work out a contract with Kim. 

Under the current posting system, every team in baseball was free to negotiate with Kim once his former club, SK Wyverns, decided to make him available. Rather than an up-front fee, the amount is determined in reference to the contract itself. Presuming that this contract includes less than $25MM in guaranteed money, the Cards will pay twenty percent of the total value to SK Wyverns.

Kim has long been a productive hurler in his native Korea. Though he has had some health issues at times, he’s coming off of a full 2019 campaign. While offense was down across the Korea Baseball Organization, Kim still stood out for his 190 1/3 innings of 2.51 ERA ball. He recorded 180 strikeouts against 38 walks on the year.

It’s not yet clear how the Cards intend to utilize Kim. Long a starter in the KBO, he certainly could be given a shot in the rotation, though doing so would likely mean bumping Carlos Martinez back into the bullpen. It’s possible the club will simply allow both pitchers to stretch out in camp and then hold off on a decision until the season arrives.

Cardinals Interested In Kwang-hyun Kim

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9:59pm: The Cardinals are working to get a deal done, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.

9:10pm: The Cardinals appear to be seriously considering a deal with left-hander Kwang-hyun Kim. He’s currently in St. Louis to discuss a contract with the Cardinals and undergo a physical, Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News tweets. Teams have until Jan. 5 to sign Kim, who’d otherwise likely return to the Korea Baseball Organization for at least another year.

The 31-year-old Kim is coming off an outstanding run as a member of SK Wyverns of the KBO, where he recorded a 3.27 ERA with 7.8 K/9 against 3.5 BB/9 across 1,673 2/3 innings before the club posted him. The former Tommy John surgery patient is free to negotiate with all MLB teams over the next two-plus weeks. If Kim signs with a major league team by Jan. 5, the release fee the Wyverns would receive would hinge on the value of his contract.

Signing Kim would be the second prominent move this offseason in the Cardinals’ rotation. The reigning NL Central champions previously re-upped franchise icon Adam Wainwright to a one-year, $5MM guarantee. As things stand, Wainwright’s slated to rejoin Jack Flaherty, Miles Mikolas and Dakota Hudson as the top four in the Cardinals’ rotation. If Kim hops aboard as the fifth member of that group, it could have an effect on Carlos Martinez, who had typically been a starter during his career before working exclusively as a reliever last season. For now, it’s unclear which role Martinez will take on in 2020.

Free Agent Notes: Akiyama, Hill, Romo, Kim, Rojas

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Notes on some prominent names on the open market…

  • We heard earlier today about Shogo Akiyama’s camp meeting with the Cubs and Diamondbacks, and 670 The Score’s Bruce Levine (Twitter link) adds that Akiyama and company also spoke with the Rays and Reds.  Contracts in the range of $8MM-$10MM over two years were discussed — this is a step up from MLBTR’s prediction of a two-year, $6MM deal, though Akiyama’s higher ask could reflect the level of interest in his services, not to mention this offseason’s thin center field market.
  • Rich Hill has been in touch with multiple teams, the veteran lefty tells The Athletic’s Andy McCullough (subscription required), including his top two choices of the Dodgers and Red Sox, as well as “a whole bunch of other teams that are going to be contenders in 2020.”  Though Hill won’t be able to pitch until midseason due to primary revision surgery on his UCL, he is “definitely not opposed to signing now.  I think that does give the opportunity for the team, to be honest, to benefit from my experience as a whole. You’ve got a guy who comes into Spring Training as a veteran, and can help younger guys out.”  Despite numerous injuries in recent years, Hill has been borderline elite when he has been able to take the mound, posting a 2.91 ERA, 3.79 K/BB rate, and 10.7 K/9 over 466 1/3 innings since the start of the 2015 season.
  • The Red Sox have some interest in Sergio Romo, though they “don’t seem to be the most aggressive suitor” for the veteran reliever, MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo writes (Twitter link).  The Athletics, Marlins, and Twins have all been linked to Romo’s market this offseason, and there was some belief last week that he could sign his new deal before the end of the Winter Meetings.
  • Left-hander Kwang-Hyun Kim “is believed to be seeking a three-year deal,” according to Jeff Sanders and Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune.  It seems like something of a bold ask from a 31-year-old pitcher who is coming to the big leagues for the first time, especially since there isn’t agreement as to whether or not Kim is best suited for a starting or relieving job against MLB competition.  (Kim is reportedly looking to start.)  That said, Kim’s salary demands aren’t known, and since at least six teams are known to have interest, it can’t hurt to aim high in the early days of his posting period.
  • Another player from the KBO League, Mel Rojas Jr. is also hearing from several Major League clubs, MLB.com’s Jon Paul Morosi tweets.  Rojas was a third-round pick for the Pirates in 2010 who played seven seasons in the minors before joining the KT Wiz prior to the 2017 season.  Since going to South Korea and the hitter-friendly KBO League, Rojas has posted an impressive .310/.377/.561 with 85 homers over 1590 PA.  Rojas is looking for guaranteed deal for a return back to North American baseball, as he’ll otherwise probably remain with the KT Wiz.

SK Wyverns Posts Lefty Kwang-hyun Kim

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TODAY: Kim’s official posting period begins tomorrow morning and ends at 4pm CT on January 5, as per Yoo’s latest report.  The delay in Kim’s posting was due to some extra medical documentation that the KBO had to submit to Major League Baseball.

NOV. 28: The KBO has officially asked MLB to post Kim, Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News tweets. After MLB notifies its clubs, Kim’s 30-day negotiating window will open at 8 a.m. ET the next day.

NOV. 22, 5:32pm: Kim is getting hits from several MLB teams, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (subscription link). The Mets, Royals, Dodgers, Diamondbacks, and Cubs are all said to have shown some level of interest in the southpaw. It remains to be seen whether he’ll be seen as a rotation or bullpen candidate and what kind of salary terms teams will be amenable to offering.

1:38am: The SK Wyverns of the Korea Baseball Organization will post left-hander Kwang-hyun Kim, according to Naver Sports (via Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net). Kim has already made it known that he’d like to pursue a major league opportunity in 2020.

Under the rules of the agreement between MLB and the KBO, Kim will be free to negotiate with all 30 big league clubs upon his posting. The release fee the Wyverns would receive if Kim were to sign with a major league team would depend on the value of his contract.

This will be the second posting for Kim, who was available to major league teams back in 2014 but was unable to reach an agreement with the Padres after they won the bidding for him for $2MM. The Padres are reportedly among several teams who have shown much more recent interest in Kim, a longtime star in his homeland.

The 30-year-old Kim has pitched his entire career with the Wyverns since debuting in the KBO at the age of 18 in 2007, though he did miss all of 2017 while recovering from Tommy John surgery. Kim has bounced back well from that procedure, however, and owns a sparkling 3.27 ERA with 7.8 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 in 1,673 2/3 innings in what has typically been a hitter-friendly league. He logged an even better 2.51 ERA and recorded 8.5 K/9 against 1.8 BB/9 across 190 1/3 frames in 2019.

Kim’s repertoire includes a low- to mid-90s, a major league-caliber slider, a curveball and a forkball, as Sung Min Kim of the KBO’s Lotte Giants tweeted in August. Although Kim boasts a well-rounded pitch mix, it’s unclear how aggressively MLB teams will pursue him. FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen wrote in their Top 50 free agent rankings that Kim’s slider is a “nasty, tilt-a-whirl” offering but that the rest of his pitches are average at best, calling him more of a fifth starter or swingman.

Teams will surely have their own ideas about how to coax some improvements out of the lefty, be it via a move to the bullpen or some alterations to his pitch selection and location. For now, though, he’ll at least add a bit more intrigue to a southpaw pitching market led by fellow Korea native Hyun-Jin Ryu, Madison Bumgarner, Cole Hamels and Dallas Keuchel on the starting side and Drew Pomeranz on the relief side.

Padres Likely To Pursue Kwang-Hyun Kim

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The Padres are planning to take another run at signing lefty Kwang-Hyun Kim now that he’s been posted by the SK Wyverns of the Korea Baseball Organization, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. San Diego won the bidding on Kim when he was posted under the previous blind-bid system back in 2014, and the organization again has its sights set on the now-31-year-old southpaw.

Perhaps of even greater note is that Acee suggests the organization doesn’t intend to pursue either Gerrit Cole or Stephen Strasburg — despite previous reports linking them to the latter — due to that duo’s expected price tag. MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell wrote yesterday that the Padres are “more optimistic” about their in-house options than the rest of the industry, adding that a pursuit of one of the top names is unlikely and that there’s been “no recent movement” to add to the rotation. Acee notes that Kim now stands out as the likeliest rotation addition for the Friars.

At present, sophomore Chris Paddack projects to front a Padres rotation that’ll also include Dinelson Lamet, Garrett Richards (in his first full year back from 2018 Tommy John surgery), recent trade acquisition Zach Davies and Joey Lucchesi. Others such as Adrian Morejon, Cal Quantrill, Michel Baez, Nick Margevicius and Ronald Bolanos represent 40-man alternatives, and uber-prospect MacKenzie Gore is likely ticketed for Double-A to open the 2020 season, thus placing him within arm’s reach of a promotion.

That pitching depth is indeed enviable, but the Padres’ payroll likely plays as much a role — if not a greater role — in their apparent aversion to inking additional free-agent pitchers. San Diego’s acquisitions of Davies and Jurickson Profar put them in line for a 2020 payroll in the $144MM range, per Roster Resource’s Jason Martinez. That number crushes their previous high-water mark, and even tacking on a mid-range starting pitcher would push the Padres beyond the $150MM mark both in terms of actual 2020 payroll and luxury-tax considerations.

The Padres have reportedly been seeking trade partners for Wil Myers for more than a year but, to this point, have unsurprisingly struggled to find a taker. Myers, who’ll turn 29 next week, is still owed a massive $61MM over the next three seasons under the now-regrettable extension he signed back in Jan. 2017, and the glut of first base/corner outfield options available elsewhere in trade or in free agency make him all the more cumbersome an asset to market in trade talks. The remaining six years and $99MM on Eric Hosmer’s eight-year contract isn’t doing the payroll any favors, either.

None of that is to say that Kim, who could be an affordable rotation option, is unworthy of an earnest pursuit. Kim has established himself as one of the best and most consistent pitchers in the hitter-friendly Korea Baseball Organization over the past decade and is fresh off a pair of sub-3.00 ERA seasons in his return from 2017 Tommy John surgery. Notably, the KBO has provided teams with extensive documentation on Kim’s health at MLB’s request, Jee-ho Yoo of the Yonhap News Agency reported recently.

Over his past 326 1/3 innings since surgery, Kim has pitched to a 2.70 ERA with 310 strikeouts against just 68 walks — demonstrating the best control of his career. He’s walked just 5.1 percent of the hitters he’s faced in that span against a 23.1 percent strikeout rate. Certainly, there’s cause for intrigue and reason to believe that he could be a viable mid-rotation upgrade at a lesser price than remaining second- and third-tier options on the domestic market.

Kim has been formally posted for Major League teams, who have until Jan. 5 to negotiate a contract with the former KBO MVP. Any team is free to sign him for any amount under the new posting system, but the Wyverns would be entitled to a release fee that is dependent on the size of the contract he inks. The Wyverns would receive a sum equal to 20 percent of the first $25MM in guarantees plus 17.5 percent of the next $25MM and 15 percent of any money spent beyond that level. A contract pushing beyond that $50MM mark (or even the $25MM plateau) hasn’t been expected, although the market for Kim is only just taking shape. What seems clear is that the Padres intend to be squarely in the mix as they seek to bolster their starting staff with an eye toward emerging from a lengthy rebuild.

Latest On Kwang-hyun Kim

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KBO left-hander Kwang-hyun Kim is expected to be posted by his parent club, the SK Wyverns, this offseason, and early indications are that he’ll be something of a hot commodity. Several MLB scouts are quoted in praise of Kim’s abilities in a Saturday article from Yoo Jee-ho of Yonhap News Agency, with several expressing optimism toward Kim’s chances of securing a rotation job (link). According to Jee-ho, Kim said Friday that he’d like to negotiate with teams that will give him an opportunity to start.

Three MLB scouts were quoted on the condition of anonymity in the above-linked piece, with the first evaluator opining that there will be “more than enough” teams willing to offer Kim a rotation spot (this scout also voiced a preference for Kim over Josh Lindblom, another star KBO pitcher expected to come stateside this offseason). A second scout described Kim’s slider and curve as “filthy” while placing a slightly above-average grade on the 31-year-old’s fastball. “If Kim is willing to settle for a relief role, he’ll certainly get a big league job,” said yet a third scout. “He could be a starter on a middling team.”

Kim’s own stated preference toward starting should help determine his ultimate destination. Yesterday, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic relayed that the Mets, Royals, Dodgers, Diamondbacks, and Cubs were among teams showing early interest. All of those teams could use another good arm on hand (who couldn’t?), but the Dodgers, in particular, don’t stand out as a team in dire need of starting depth. The club’s young pitching, to say nothing of veterans like Clayton Kershaw and Kenta Maeda, would seem to leave their rotation well spoken for, but it’s amusing to ponder if LA could allow Hyun-Jin Ryu, another former left-handed star of the KBO, to walk while securing Kim as a speculative starting replacement.

The Diamondbacks, meanwhile, certainly profile as a recently middle-of-the-pack team that has shown a willingness to gamble on the ability of a pitcher to translate their success to American soil. It was just last offseason that GM Mike Hazen signed pitcher Merrill Kelly to a two-year, $5.5MM guaranteed contract with consecutive club options valued at $4.25MM and $5.25MM. Like Kim, Kelly isn’t a particularly hard thrower, with a fastball sitting around 92 mph, but he was still able to parlay a four-year run of KBO success into a multi-year contract followed by a generally acceptable 2019 rookie year (4.42 ERA across 32 starts). The ’Backs can’t be described as an especially pitching-needy team, but recent rumors around the name of lefty Robbie Ray could foreshadow an upcoming job opening in the Arizona rotation.

Kim threw to a  2.51 ERA in 191.1 innings with the Wyverns in 2019, continuing a career that, aside from a 2017 Tommy John procedure, has largely been immaculate. Since debuting in 2007 at the age of 18, the left-hander owns a 3.27 ERA with 7.8 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 in 1,673 2/3 career innings. Though Kim was unable to come to an accord with the Padres after his posting in 2014, it’s beginning to appear that his continued success, combined with a particularly pitching-hungry free-agent market, could soon lead to his long-awaited MLB debut.

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