KBO’s Kia Tigers Release Adonis Medina, Sign Mario Sanchez
The Kia Tigers of the Korea Baseball Organization have released right-hander Adonis Medina, per Yoo Jee-ho of Yonhap News Agency. Right-hander Mario Sanchez will replace Medina, per CPBL Stats.
Medina, 26, pitched in 10 MLB games over the 2020-2022 period with the Phillies and Mets. He had a 5.35 ERA in that time and was outrighted off the Mets’ roster in September. He headed to Korea this year to join the Tigers but it didn’t go especially well. He posted a 6.05 ERA in 58 innings over 12 starts. He struck out just 13.9% of batters faced while walking 10.8%. KBO teams are only allowed three roster spots for non-Korean players and the Tigers have apparently decided to go in a different direction with one of theirs.
Sanchez, 28, will be the beneficiary of the move. He began the year with the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions in the Chinese Professional Baseball League of Taiwan. He made 10 appearances for the Lions, nine starts, with a 1.44 ERA in 62 2/3 innings. He only struck out 17.4% of opponents but kept his walks down to a tiny 4.6% rate. Those strong results will get him an opportunity to showcase himself in the KBO.
Sanchez doesn’t have major league experience but did spend many years in affiliated ball. Initially a prospect with the Nationals, he went to the Phillies as the played to be named later in the 2016 trade that sent Jimmy Cordero to Washington. He never made it past Double-A with the Phils, then returned to the Nats in a minor league capacity. He topped out at Triple-A with the Nats and also the Twins in recent years before heading to Taiwan this season.
Phillies Sign Pedro Florimon, Acquire Mario Sanchez From Nationals
The Phillies announced that today that they’ve acquired minor league right-hander Mario Sanchez from the Nationals as the player to be named later in last month’s Jimmy Cordero swap. They also announced minor league deals for Pedro Florimon, Sean Burnett, Daniel Nava and Hector Gomez, each of whom will be invited to Major League Spring Training. (The signings of Nava and Burnett were reported last week by the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Matt Gelb and SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo, respectively.)
Sanchez, 22, spent the 2016 season with Washington’s Class-A Advanced affiliate, where he pitched to a 3.46 ERA with 7.2 K/9, 2.5 BB/9 and a 43.1 percent ground-ball rate in 78 innings of work. The Venezuelan-born righty didn’t make any starts but made 12 relief appearances of at least three innings, including one six-inning relief performance to close out the season. He didn’t rank among the Nationals’ top 30 prospects, though given the rather low-profile nature of the trade that is sending him to the Phillies, that shouldn’t be a big surprise.
Florimon, who turned 30 two days ago, spent the 2015-16 seasons as a member of the Pirates and saw sparse time with the big league club, hitting .149/.200/.255 in just 50 plate appearances. Prior to that stretch, the entirety of Florimon’s big league time had come with the Twins, for whom he served as the primary shortstop in 2013, hitting .222/.281/.330 with nine homers and 15 steals. Florimon has never hit much in the Majors or minors, but he’s a terrific defender at shortstop and could function as a Triple-A depth option for the Phillies. He’s a career .253/.320/.368 hitter in 1222 Triple-A PAs, so his bat certainly has played a bit better at that level than in the Majors.
Gomez, 28, spent the 2016 season playing with Korea’s SK Wyverns, where he hit .283/.326/.493 with 21 homers, 31 doubles and 16 stolen bases in 484 trips to the plate. The versatile infielder spent the 2014-15 seasons with the Brewers, batting a combined .177/.209/.306 in 155 PAs. He comes with a very solid Triple-A background, having batted .298/.341/.512 in 150 games (although those numbers have likely been aided by the hitter-friendly nature of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League), and he also brings experience at shortstop, second base and third base to the Phillies organization.