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Ah-Seop Son

Outfielder Ah-Seop Son Staying In Korea

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Korean outfielder Ah-seop Son drew major league interest earlier this offseason, but he’s now off the market after agreeing to re-sign with the Lotte Giants of the KBO, Jeeho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reports (on Twitter). The Giants gave Son a four-year contract worth $9.8 billion Korean won ($9MM USD), according to Yoo.

This isn’t the first offseason in which Son looked like a legitimate candidate to immigrate to the majors, only to remain in Korea. The Giants posted him back in 2015, but he stayed with the team after failing to garner any bids from major league clubs (notably, he would have not been subject to the posting system this winter). At the time, Son was coming off a five-year stretch in which he combined to bat .333/.409/.476 and add roughly 12 home runs and 16 stolen bases per season.

The 29-year-old Son continued his strong production in his hitter-friendly league over the previous two seasons, and he just turned in one of his best campaigns. Across 667 trips to the plate, Son slashed .335/.420/.514 with a personal-high 20 homers. He also stole 25 bags on 33 attempts and collected 83 walks against 96 strikeouts.

MLB Tenders Status Check On Korean Outfielder Ah-Seop Son

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Major League Baseball has tendered a status check on outfielder Ah-seop Son of the Korea Baseball Organization’s Lotte Giants, reports Jee-ho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency. The status check is largely a formality, but an agreement between MLB and the KBO stipulates that if a team has interest in a potential KBO free agent (or a player that is eligible for posting), that MLB team must formally check the status of the player through official league channels. In other words, as Yoo points out, the status check indicates that at least one MLB team has expressed interest in signing Son this winter.

Some readers of MLBTR may recall Son’s name from two years ago, when KBO’s Giants posted him, but he did not draw a bid from a Major League club. At the time, Son was coming off a characteristically strong season at the plate, having batted .317/.406/.472 with 13 home runs and 11 stolen bases in 517 plate appearances. Excellent bating averages and OBP numbers are nothing new for Son, who has not batted lower than .306 and has not posted an OBP south of .370 since becoming a regular as a 22-year-old back in 2010. Yoo notes that Son’s career .325 batting average is tied for the league-wide lead among active KBO players.

However, Son’s two seasons since failing to draw a bid have been his two best campaigns yet. The 2016 season saw the left-handed-hitting corner outfielder bat .323/.418/.468 with 16 home runs and a career-high 42 stolen bases (in 46 attempts). This past season, Son clubbed a career-high 20 home runs and a career-best 35 doubles en route to a .335/.420/.514 batting line. He also swiped 25 bases in 33 attempts. He’ll turn 30 next March.

Unlike the last time he was made available for MLB teams, Son is a legitimate free agent following the conclusion of the Korean Series (the KBO’s championship series). He will not be subject to the KBO posting system or to international bonus pools, making him free to sign with any MLB team for any amount. That doesn’t guarantee that he’ll sign a Major League contract, of course; Son’s former teammate, Jae-gyun Hwang, was a superstar in the KBO but settled for a minor league pact with MLB’s Giants last offseason due to tepid interest on the open market.

Son, by all accounts, is limited to the outfield corners. He’s been compared to Nori Aoki in terms of skill set: limited power but excellent bat-to-ball skills and above-average speed. In his KBO career, Son has struck out at just a 15.4 percent clip, as compared to an 11.4 percent walk rate. Those marks were even better in 2017, as he walked in 12.4 percent of his PAs and whiffed at just a 14.3 percent pace.

That Son was able to show improved discipline while also logging a career-high in homers is certainly an encouraging trend for his stock as an international free agent this winter, but it remains to be seen exactly where he’ll fit into the market. J.D. Martinez, Justin Upton (assuming he opts out of the remaining four years on his contract) and Jay Bruce are the top corner names available, and teams interest in that trio won’t look at Son as a fallback. But, Son could provide teams looking at the next tier of free-agent outfielders — Carlos Gomez, Jon Jay, Jarrod Dyson, Howie Kendrick, etc. — with an affordable, albeit more uncertain option to pursue.

Ah-Seop Son Does Not Draw Any Bids From MLB Teams

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Korean outfielder Ah-seop Son did not draw any bids after being posted recently by KBO’s Lotte Giants, Jee-ho Yoo of Yonhap News reports on Twitter. That means that Lotte will retain his rights, though Yoo tweets that Son could also end up joining a Japanese club.

The news comes as something of a surprise, as it had seemed that the 27-year-old would draw some interest. MLB teams have shown an increased willingness to pay for Korean talent, and Son offers a high-contact, high-OBP bat at a prime age. Over the last five years, he’s averaged a robust .333/.409/.476 slash in the hitter-friendly KBO.

While his situation is interesting in its own right, there are other factors at play here as well. Lotte controls Son for the 2017 season as well as this one, meaning the team might not have been as willing to let him go. He’ll also be eligible for posting again next winter.

Meanwhile, it’s now or never for the team to cash in on another key player: third baseman Jae-gyun Hwang. Because the KBO rule book only allows clubs to take one bid per offseason, only one of those two players — both of whom requested to be posted — could end up moving to North American this year.

Today’s news, then, clears the way for Hwang to test the waters. Lotte is reportedly prepared to do just that. While there’s some disagreement as to which player stands the better chance at a successful transition to the majors, with Hwang’s huge 2015 season standing out somewhat against his overall track record, there appears to be less supply available on the hot corner market.

KBO Notes: Kim, Son, Hwang

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Korean outfielder Hyun-soo Kim (whose name is occasionally Romanized as Hyeon-soo Kim) confirms today that he’s interesting in signing with an MLB team, Yonhap News Agency reports. (Yahoo! Sports’ Jeff Passan had previously reported that Kim was looking to continue his career in North America.) Kim has recently been involved in the Premier 12 tournament in Tokyo.  “I haven’t had a chance to set specific plans for my future because I wanted to concentrate on the Premier 12,” he says. “I will have to talk to my agent afterward, but there’s no reason to turn down interest from major league clubs. I’d love to play in the majors.” Kim has played nine seasons for the Doosan Bears, batting an excellent .318/.406/.488 in what Passan notes is a tough hitting environment by KBO standards. Kim doesn’t have the power that Byung-ho Park and Jung-ho Kang demonstrated in Korea, but he’s a terrific contact hitter. “He’s just great at putting bat on ball,” a scout told Passan. “He’s got a Royals-type offensive profile.” He’s also still just 27, and as an international free agent, he’s free to sign with any team and won’t require a posting fee.

  • With Kang already having a year under his belt with the Pirates, and with Park, Ah-seop Son, Kim and Seung-hwan Oh potentially attracting interest this offseason (along with first Dae-ho Lee, a Korean first baseman who was playing in Japan), there’s no shortage of intrigue surrounding Korean players looking to join MLB teams. It’s possible that the talent in the KBO has simply improved recently, Joe Lemire of USA Today writes. But it’s also possible the increased interest is due not so much to improved talent in Korea, but to changes in the ways MLB teams are allowed to pursue talent. “There’s only so many avenues to acquire players,” says an NL executive. “With the cap on draft and international (amateur free agents), now you can go over there and acquire big league-ready players, and it doesn’t go against your spending cap.” Experts feel that about a dozen players in the KBO are capable of handling the jump to the Majors, writes Lemire.
  • Many executives prefer third baseman Jae-gyun Hwang to Son, his Lotte Giants teammate, Passan writes. The problem is a rule that stipulates that a KBO team cannot accept bids on two players that have been posted in the same offseason. The bidding for Son will conclude Monday. If Lotte accept the top bid, then it risks allowing Hwang to leave as a free agent next season without collecting a posting fee for him. Son, on the other hand, is not eligible for free agency until after 2017, so Lotte might be able to maximize its earnings by rejecting the top bid for Son, taking bids on Hwang, and posting Son again next year. The team, however, earned negative publicity when it refused to allow Son to skip a road trip to be with his dying father, so it’s possible the Giants could accept Son’s bid as a way of avoiding the perception that they’re treating him unfairly.

Bidding Deadline For Ah-Seop Son Pushed To Monday

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NOV. 20: The deadline to submit bids for Son has been pushed to Monday at 5pm ET, according to a report from Yonhap (Korean link). The reason for the delay is that while Lotte requested Son to be posted on Nov. 16, MLB didn’t formally process the request until Nov. 17. At the time the posting was formalized, it was already Nov. 18 in Korea (as noted below, Korea is 14 hours ahead of United States Eastern Time).

The delay creates an uncomfortable situation for Son, who will begin his mandatory four-week military training next Monday (which would put the end date on Dec. 18). As Yoo noted in his column below, Son doesn’t have to actually serve in the military because of his status as a Gold Medal winner from the 2014 Asian Games, but even pro athletes who earn their way out of the requirement must still complete the training. It’s possible, then, that Son won’t immediately know the results of his own posting due to his training schedule.

NOV. 16: Son was officially posted yesterday, Yonhap’s Jee-ho Yoo writes. The bidding process on Son will be open until Nov. 20, and the Giants will learn of the accepting bid on Nov. 21. They’ll then have until Nov. 26 to make their decision on whether or not to accept. If a bid is accepted, the winning team will have 30 days from the time it is accepted to negotiate a contract with Son. It should be noted that South Korea is 14 hours ahead of United States Eastern Time, meaning those deadlines will actually pass at 10am ET on those days in North America (as we saw when the Byung-ho Park news broke early Monday morning last week).

Those interested in Son can check out a highlight reel recently compiled by his agents and posted to YouTube.

NOV. 9: Outfielder Ah-seop Son of the Korea Baseball Organization’s Lotte Giants is expected to be posted for MLB clubs this coming Sunday, reports Daniel Kim of KBS Sports (via Twitter).

As was the case with Byung-ho Park of the KBO’s Nexen Heroes — a first baseman for whom the Twins secured negotiation rights with a $12.85MM posting fee earlier today — big league clubs will have five days to bid on Son. After that point, Lotte will have to decide whether or not to accept the bid. An announcement as to which team posted the winning bid — if an acceptable bid is indeed made — would come one week from the date of his posting. From the point the bid is accepted, the winning team would have 30 days to negotiate a contract with Son and his agent, Rick Thurman of the Beverly Hills Sports Council.

Son is a 27-year-old corner outfielder that has consistently posted strong marks in batting average and on-base percentage over the past five seasons in KBO. In that time, he’s batted .333/.409/.476, averaging 12 home runs and 16 stolen bases per season. This past season was one of Son’s best, as he .317/.406/.472 with 13 homers and 11 steals. Son makes plenty of contact, striking out in just 15.6 percent of his career plate appearances in Korea and drawing more walks (80) than strikeouts (78) in 2014. He’s walked at a 10.8 percent clip in his KBO career.

Son’s posting is worth keeping an eye on, as Korea’s Giants actually have a pair of players that asked to be posted this offseason: Son and third baseman Jae-gyun Hwang. However, KBO rules stipulate that a team can only accept a bid on one player per offseason and can only post one player at a time. If the team does not receive a bid to its liking on Son, or if Son and BHSC aren’t able to come to terms with a team that does make an acceptable bid in the allotted 30-day negotiation window, the Giants will reportedly immediately post Hwang for MLB clubs.

Due to the fact that Son has two remaining years of service time remaining, Lotte needn’t feel any pressure to accept the highest bid. The club could pass on the bids if none is deemed strong enough to part with two years of one of the team’s better hitters, which would mean that Son would simply return to the team in 2016. He could then be posted again next winter. The same cannot be said of Hwang, who would qualify for free agency following the 2016 season and could make himself available to MLB clubs without the restrictions of the posting system.

AL Notes: Yankees, Red Sox, Boyer, Son

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The Yankees and Red Sox top the list of teams who could be aggressive this offseason, Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes. The Yankees might not be heavily involved with the free agent market, but they could pursue any number of trades, particularly now that their deal for Aaron Hicks, which made it possible for them to deal Brett Gardner. The Sox, meanwhile, have already traded for Craig Kimbrel and could top that move with an even bigger one for a top starting pitcher. Here are more quick notes from the AL.

  • The Royals and other teams have already shown interest in free agent righty reliever Blaine Boyer, but Boyer remains interested in returning to the Twins, Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press writes. “I think I showed this year, and really my whole career, that I can step in for the eighth inning or the seventh inning,” Boyer says. “I can also go long. I pride myself on being a multi-role bullpen piece. I think they know that, and I conveyed that to [Twins manager Paul Molitor].” Boyer was a valuable part of the Twins’ bullpen last year, posting a 2.49 ERA and 2.6 BB/9 over 65 innings, albeit with a very low 4.6 K/9.
  • The Orioles did not win the rights to negotiate with Nexen Heroes slugger Byung-ho Park, but another KBO player, Ah-seop Son, might be a better fit for them, Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun writes. The Orioles can use an outfielder who can hit leadoff, and Son fits the bill — he has a .398 on-base percentage in nine seasons with the Lotte Giants, and he’s been favorably compared to Nori Aoki, in whom the Orioles have previously had at least some interest. Son will be posted tomorrow.

KBO’s Lotte Giants To Post Outfielder Ah-Seop Son

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The Lotte Giants of the Korea Baseball Organization will post right fielder Ah-seop Son for MLB teams to bid upon this offseason, according to the Yonhap News Agency (hat tip: Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net). Lotte had reportedly been mulling over the difficult decision of whether to post Son or third baseman Jae-gyun Hwang, both of whom had asked the club to post them. However, KBO’s league rules state that a team can accept only one bid on a posted player per offseason, and a league ruling was made that Lotte could not simply post them simultaneously and then select the top bid.

Per Yonhap, if the Giants don’t receive a bid that is to their liking on Son, or they accept a bid but Son and the winning team cannot come to a deal on a Major League contract, the club will then immediately make Hwang available via the posting system. If a bid for Son is accepted and he does indeed sign with a big league club, then Lotte almost certainly will lose Hwang for nothing next offseason, as he’s set to become a true free agent next winter and could negotiate with MLB clubs without the restrictions of the posting system.

Because of that, it’s at least a mild surprise to see Son posted first, as he’d have been eligible to be posted next winter as well. However, the Yonhap report indicates that the Giants elected to post Son first due to a superior track record over the past five seasons. While Hwang set multiple career-highs in 2015, most notably in home runs (by a wide margin), Son’s been the steadier hitter over the past half-decade.

Dating back to 2011, Son has batted .333/.409/.476 as opposed to Hwang’s .289/.357/.438. Son has averaged 12 homers and 16 steals per year in that time, while Hwang has averaged respective totals of 12 and 17. (Hwang’s 26 homers in 2015 skew those averages somewhat, though so, too, do Son’s 36 steals in 2013.) The duo’s 2015 production — .317/.406/.472 for Son and .290/.350/.521 for Hwang — made the decision difficult for Lotte.

Son, who is represented by agent Rick Thurman of the Beverly Hills Sports Council, will turn 28 during Spring Training next season. He will be posted under the old, blind-bid posting system that still applies to KBO. As a reminder, that means all 30 clubs will have the opportunity to submit a bid of any amount to secure negotiating rights for Son’s services. If Son’s team accepts the bid — and the Giants could neglect to do so if they don’t think it to be a high enough price for one of their top players — that team would then have 30 days to negotiate a big league contract with Son and Thurman. If a deal can’t be reached, Son would return to Lotte for the 2016 season, and the MLB club that won the bidding would receive its money back. As noted above, should that scenario play out, the process would start over with Hwang, with all 30 teams being eligible to place a bid.

Son will become eligible to be posted starting on Nov. 1, and due to the possibility that Lotte could have to go through the month-long bidding process twice this winter, it’d make sense for the club to post him as early in the offseason as possible. Teams will be burning through their budgets over the course of the winter, and waiting until later in the offseason raises the possibility of a team feeling its spent all it can on free agency or of acquiring an alternative to either player either via free agency or trade.

For the time being, Son will join a crowded free agent market for corner outfielders that is headlined by Jason Heyward, Justin Upton and Yoenis Cespedes but also features Colby Rasmus, Alex Rios, Steve Pearce and Rajai Davis, among others.

Jae-Gyun Hwang, Ah-Seop Son Ask To Be Posted By KBO Team

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OCT. 20: KBO has determined that Lotte will not be permitted to post both Hwang and Son simultaneously, per a new report from Yonhap. However, if the first player posted by the Giants fails to reach a deal with a Major League club, the Giants could then post the other player.

KBO players are eligible to be posted beginning on Nov. 1 and at any point until March 1, though it’d obviously behoove Lotte (or any other club) to post its players earlier in the offseason, when MLB teams have more money to spend. Per the Yonhap report, the Giants plan to try to convince both players to stay in KBO for another season.

OCT. 16: Korean third baseman Jae-gyun Hwang and outfielder Ah-seop Son have both asked their team, the Lotte Giants, to be posted for Major League teams to bid on this offseason, according to a report from Korean media outlet Yonhap News (link is in English).

However, we’re not likely to see both players make the jump to Major League Baseball in 2016, as the Korea Baseball Organization’s rules stipulate that a team can only accept a posting bid on one player per offseason. That, however, does not technically mean that both cannot be posted. A person familiar with the league tells MLBTR that there’s an internal debate among KBO officials as to whether or not the Giants could still post both players. In that instance, the team would be limited to accepting a bid on one or the other. To this point, given the limited number of players to jump from KBO to MLB, there’s been no precedent for a team desiring to post multiple players in the same offseason.

At this juncture, the Giants haven’t given an indication as to whether or not they’ll post either player, per the Yonhap report. From a pure business standpoint, though, it would make the most sense to post Hwang. The 28-year-old third baseman has eight years of service time in KBO, and players become eligible for international free agency after nine seasons, meaning Hwang could leave without the restriction of the posting process next offseason. Son, on the other hand, has seven years of service time and could be posted again next winter.

Hwang enjoyed a breakout season in 2015, shattering his previous career-high in home runs. The right-handed hitter batted .290/.350/.521 with 26 homers on the season after never having totaled more than 18 in a season. It’s worth noting that KBO did up its number of regular-season contests from 128 to 144 this season, but even on a per-plate-appearance basis, his homer output markedly increased, and he won the KBO’s annual home run derby this season as well. Hwang is said to be a good defensive third baseman, and he’s played in every KBO game dating back to 2011, so he has durability on his side also.

Son is a few months younger and will play all of the 2016 season at age 28 (Hwang will turn 29 next July). The left-handed hitter doesn’t have Hwang’s power upside but is a better contact hitter and has posted consistently superior on-base percentages. Son batted .317/.406/.472 with 13 homers and 11 steals (17 attempts) in 116 games this year and has hit .306 or better with at least a .370 OBP each year dating back to 2010. He’s previously swiped as many as 36 bases in a season. Yahoo’s Jeff Passan reported recently that Son hoped to be posted and was being represented by the Beverly Hills Sports Council.

It’s not known what type of posting fee either player would command, but as a reminder, KBO still uses the old, “blind” posting method from which Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball has moved away. Under the KBO posting system, all 30 teams would be able to submit a blind bid of any amount, with the Giants then accepting the highest bid. From that point, the team that won the bidding would have a month to negotiate a contract with the player and his representatives. If an agreement isn’t reached, the player would return to the Giants, and the posting fee would be returned to the team that had won the bidding.

Jung Ho Kang, a close friend of Hwang, cost the Pirates a $5MM posting fee plus a guaranteed four-year, $11MM contract. That deal, of course, looks to be an incredible bargain for GM Neal Huntington in hindsight. It will be interesting to see if the success of Kang makes teams more willing to wager larger posting fees on future Korean players even though neither Hwang nor Son possesses the same level of power.

Korean Outfielder Ah-Seop Son Likely To Be Posted This Offseason

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Korean outfielder Ah-seop Son plans to enter the posting system this winter in order to jump from the Korea Baseball Organization to Major League Baseball, reports Yahoo’s Jeff Passan. Son, a 27-year-old corner outfielder for KBO’s Lotte Giants, is being represented by agent Rick Thurman of the Beverly Hills Sports Council, per Passan.

The left-handed-hitting Son has batted .324/.412/.476 with 12 home runs and 11 stolen bases in 476 plate appearances this season, walking at a 13 percent clip while striking out in 19.5 percent of his plate appearances. Son has batted .306 or better for the past six seasons in KBO, posting a cumulative batting line of .330/.405/.471 that closely mirrors his overall production from the 2015 campaign.

Son will look to follow in the footsteps of Pirates infielder Jung Ho Kang, whose four-year, $11MM contract and $5MM posting fee have proved to be perhaps this past offseason’s greatest bargain. Of course, it’s somewhat understandable that interest in Kang was mixed, as he’s the first position player to make the jump from KBO to MLB. Many questioned whether or not his prodigious power would translate to the Majors or if it was simply a product of the KBO’s notoriously hitter-friendly league. While Kang’s power didn’t necessarily translate, he has, as Passan notes, certainly performed well enough that clubs may be less wary of taking on hitters from Korea’s top professional league.

Korean players are subject to the traditional posting system in which all 30 clubs must submit blind bids, with the team that submits the highest amount being given a 30-day window to then negotiate a contract. Should the team and Son’s representatives at BHSC fail to reach a deal, the posting fee would be returned to the MLB team that submitted the winning bid, and Son would return to KBO.

If a team is unable to work out a deal with Son, however, he could still find himself in the Majors eventually. KBO players become unrestricted free agents following their ninth full season, after which they’re free to negotiate with all 30 MLB clubs. For Son, that would come after the 2017 season. Though he’s technically appeared in parts of nine pro seasons, he didn’t earn enough service time in his first few years to become eligible until after 2017.

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