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KBO’s Lotte Giants Sign Tucker Davidson

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The Lotte Giants of the Korea Baseball Organization announced they’ve signed left-handers Tucker Davidson and Charlie Barnes. Davidson receives an $850K salary with another $100K in incentives for his first season with the Giants. Barnes, who is headed into his fourth season with the club, receives $1.5MM (including incentives). The moves were relayed by Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net.

Davidson heads to a foreign league for the first time in his career. The 6’2″ southpaw made one appearance in the major leagues this year. He tossed 4 2/3 innings out of the bullpen for the Orioles, picking up the win in a blowout victory over the Twins in the season’s final weekend. Davidson spent the rest of the year with Baltimore’s Triple-A club in Norfolk. He started 17 of 32 outings and worked to a 3.89 earned run average across 115 2/3 frames.

Baltimore waived Davidson shortly after the season concluded. He elected minor league free agency. Rather than accept another minor league deal, he’ll parlay his solid Triple-A numbers into the KBO opportunity. The 28-year-old has a 5.76 ERA over 129 2/3 major league innings across four teams.

Barnes, who pitched for the Minnesota Twins in 2021, has been a reliable piece of the Lotte rotation for the last three years. He owns a 3.42 ERA in a little more than 500 KBO innings. Barnes turned in a 3.35 mark with 171 strikeouts over 150 2/3 innings this past season.

Victor Reyes Signs With KBO’s Lotte Giants

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8:38pm: According to Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News, Reyes is set to make $950K in 2024. Yoo also notes that the Giants have re-signed former Twins left-hander Charlie Barnes to a one-year, $1.35MM contract. Barnes, 28, pitched 38 innings in the majors for Minnesota back in 2021 and posted a 3.28 ERA across 30 starts with Lotte this past season.

7:49pm: Former big league outfielder Victor Reyes has signed a deal with the Korea Baseball Organization’s Lotte Giants, per Jon Heyman of the New York Post. The terms of the deal are not currently known.

Reyes, 29, signed with the Braves out of Venezuela back in 2012. After three seasons with Atlanta, Reyes was swapped to the Diamondbacks in 2015 before getting selected as the first pick of the Rule 5 draft in 2017 by the Tigers. He made his big league debut in 2018 with 100 appearances largely as a bench bate and late-inning defensive replacement, sticking on the roster long enough to become a permanent member of the Tigers organization. Though Reyes never secured a full time role in Detroit, the switch hitter performed fairly well in a fourth outfield role, slashing .274/.306/.398 (91 wRC+) from 2019-22 while playing strong outfield defense and going 24-for-32 on the basepaths.

Reyes became a minor league free agent following the 2022 season and eventually joined the White Sox on a minor league deal. He performed well across 128 games at the Triple-A level, slashing .279/.330/.462 across 546 trips to the plate while clubbing 50 extra base hits including 20 home runs. While Reyes ultimately never made it into a big league game with Chicago last season, the improved power potential he flashed in the minors has seemingly earned him attention overseas, leading to this deal with the Giants.

Stateside players who haven’t managed to stick in the big leagues often head overseas in hopes of making their way back to the big leagues later on while making more than they would be able to on a typical minor league contract. Eric Thames and Darin Ruf are among the hitters who revitalized their big league careers with a sojourn to Korea, and most recently right-hander Erick Fedde won the KBO’s MVP award this past season and subsequently earned himself a two-year, $15MM guarantee with the White Sox earlier this winter. Reyes will surely hope to follow in the footsteps of those players as he continues his professional career on the other side of the world.

Free Agent Notes: Imanaga, Fedde, Barnes

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Left-hander Shota Imanaga was officially posted by the Yokohama BayStars of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball late last month, kicking off a 45-day window during which he’ll be eligible to sign with major league clubs. While Imanaga only just officially joined the ranks of MLB’s free agents days ago, he’s long been expected to be posted this offseason. That’s allowed Imanaga’s free agency to develop considerable buzz in recent months.

While he’s largely been overshadowed by NPB superstar Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who’s widely considered the top starting pitcher on this offseason’s market, Imanaga is an impressive pitcher in his own right who is expected to be a potential mid-rotation arm in the big leagues with a low-nineties fastball as part of a deep pitch mix that Brandon Tew of Sports Info Solutions recently profiled. MLBTR ranked Imanaga tenth (sixth among starting pitchers) on our annual top 50 free agents list and projected him for a five year, $85MM deal. ESPN’s Jeff Passan suggests that Imanaga’s market may be even stronger than expected, noting in a recent article that while teams were initially hopeful the southpaw could be had on a deal similar to the five-year, $75MM pact Kodai Senga landed last offseason, his final deal figures to exceed that, potentially to the point of approaching a $100MM guarantee.

Should Imanaga’s contract ultimately reach the $100MM range suggested by Passan, it would be a major win not only for Imanaga but also the BayStars. Imanaga’s free agency is subject to the MLB/NPB posting system, under which the team that signs the left-hander would owe the BayStars a posting fee worth as much as 20% of Imanaga’s total guarantee, with the percentage going down as the price of Imanaga’s contract goes up. If Imanaga were to sign for $100MM guaranteed, the BayStars would receive approximately $16.9MM, or just over $2MM more than they would receive if Imanaga signed an $85MM deal in line with MLBTR’s projections. The Cubs, Red Sox, and Mets have all been connected to Imanaga so far this offseason, though it’s certainly possible more teams are involved in the bidding for the 30-year-old’s services.

More free agent notes from around the league…

  • Former Nationals top prospect Erick Fedde is among the most interesting free agents on the market this offseason after a dominant season with the NC Dinos of the Korea Baseball Organization. Previous reports have indicated that Fedde, who sports a career 5.41 ERA across six seasons in the majors but altered his repertoire before dominating to the tune of a 2.00 ERA across 30 starts with the Dinos this year, has garnered interest from both the Dinos and MLB clubs. Su-eun Jeon of Baseball Korea (h/t Dan Kurtz of MyKBO) adds additional clarity to those reports, noting that Fedde has received interest from two MLB teams and a team in Japan’s NPB in addition to the offer he’s received to return to the Dinos. While it’s possible that Fedde could look to return to stateside ball this offseason, it’s worth noting that no former big leaguer returning from the KBO has secured a guarantee of even $10MM in the majors. That could lead Fedde to bet on himself by either remaining with the Dinos in hopes of a similarly dominant season in 2024 to further bolster his case for a more significant pact, or even consider a move to Japan in order to face NPB’s stiffer competition.
  • Fedde isn’t the only American-born player of note who could look to return to the majors this offseason, as MLB Network’s Jon Morosi suggests left-hander Charlie Barnes is expected to garner MLB interest in free agency this offseason. Barnes, 28, was a fourth-round pick by the Twins in the 2017 draft and made nine appearances with the big league club in 2021. He struggled to a 5.92 ERA and 5.06 FIP in 38 innings of work for Minnesota across nine appearances. He’s spent the two years since then pitching for the KBO’s Lotte Giants, with a combined 3.46 ERA in 61 starts. Looking just at his 2023 season, Barnes struck out 20% of batters faced with a 3.28 ERA in 170 1/3 innings of work. In addition to the aforementioned MLB interest, Morosi suggests that the Giants are expected to have strong interest in retaining Barnes, who served as the ace of their staff this season.

Charlie Barnes Re-Signs With KBO’s Lotte Giants

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The Lotte Giants of the Korea Baseball Organization have agreed to a new contract with left-hander Charlie Barnes, as first reported by Ji-heon Pae (on Twitter). It’s a one-year deal that’ll guarantee the former big league hurler $1.2MM, MLBTR has learned. That’ll take the form of a $350K signing bonus and an $850K salary, and the contract also contains $50K in potential incentives.

Barnes returns for a second season with the Giants, who also re-signed outfielder Zach Reks last week. The Clemson product signed last offseason on a $610K guarantee, and he’ll nearly double that salary in year two after a strong debut campaign. Barnes took 31 turns through the Giants’ rotation, tossing 186 innings of 3.62 ERA ball. He punched out 20.3% of opponents and limited walks to an excellent 6% clip. Perhaps most impressively, he kept the ball on the ground for more than three-fifths of batted balls he surrendered, helping him limit home runs to just a 0.39 rate per nine innings.

That marked Barnes’ most extended action at the highest level of a country’s professional ranks. He logged a bit of major league time with the Twins prior to heading to South Korea. Barnes pitched in nine games (eight starts) for Minnesota in 2021, allowing a 5.92 ERA through 38 innings. The former fourth-round draftee had posted a 3.71 ERA over parts of four seasons in the Minnesota farm system.

Barnes is 27 years old. There have been a few examples — most prominently Merrill Kelly and Chris Flexen — of pitchers who’d been on the fringe of a 40-man roster getting a longer leash at the MLB level after finding success in South Korea. Veteran righty Drew Rucinski is hoping to be next in that line this winter. Barnes is certainly young enough to have a chance at following that path eventually, but he’ll focus his efforts for the time being on looking to help the Giants bounce back from a 64-76 campaign.

Recapping The KBO League’s International Player Signings

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With the lockout slowing MLB-related transactions to a crawl of minor league deals, transactions involving Korean Baseball Organization teams have taken more of a spotlight on MLBTR’s pages since the start of December.  These moves have included the signings of several names familiar to North American baseball fans, as the KBO League’s clubs have looked to address their allocated three roster spots for non-Korean players.  International-born players can only sign contracts worth a maximum of $1MM in total salary, and players new to the KBO League can sign only one-year pacts.

Though the Doosan Bears have one signing that still isn’t yet official, the other 29 slots have been filled.  It is still possible this list could be adjusted in the coming weeks due to a number of factors — injuries, players returning to North America (for personal reasons or a deal with an MLB team), issues related to the pandemic, or teams just changing their minds after seeing the players in training camp.  Here is the rundown of this winter’s international signings for the 10 KBO League franchises….

Doosan Bears
Jose Miguel Fernandez (deal not yet finalized), Ariel Miranda, Robert Stock

NC Dinos
Nick Martini, Wes Parsons, Drew Rucinski

Hanwha Eagles
Ryan Carpenter, Nick Kingham, Mike Tauchman

Lotte Giants
Charlie Barnes, DJ Peters, Glenn Sparkman

Kiwoom Heroes
Tyler Eppler, Eric Jokisch, Yasiel Puig

SSG Landers
Kevin Cron, Wilmer Font, Ivan Nova

Samsung Lions
David Buchanan, Jose Pirela, Albert Suarez

Kia Tigers
Socrates Brito, Sean Nolin, Ronnie Williams

LG Twins
Casey Kelly, Adam Plutko, Rio Ruiz

KT Wiz
William Cuevas, Odrisamer Despaigne, Henry Ramos

KBO’s Lotte Giants Sign Charlie Barnes

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The Lotte Giants of the Korea Baseball Organization announced they’ve signed left-hander Charlie Barnes. The former Minnesota Twins southpaw will receive a $610K guarantee, according to Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap. (Brandon Warne of Access Twins was first to report Barnes was signing with Lotte).

A fourth-round pick out of Clemson in 2017, Barnes steadily progressed through the Twins system. He reached the big leagues this year, ultimately making nine appearances (eight starts) for Minnesota down the stretch. He posted a 5.92 ERA over 38 innings while only striking out 11.4% of opposing hitters. After the season, the Twins outrighted Barnes off their 40-man roster.

While it wasn’t an illustrious debut showing, the 26-year-old has generally been effective throughout his minor league tenure. He owns an ERA below 4.00 at every stop through Double-A, and while he struggled during a brief end-of-season stint at Triple-A in 2019, he’d been better there this past season. Barnes tossed 76 innings with the Twins’ top affiliate in St. Paul, posting a 3.79 ERA. That came with a below-average 19.1% strikeout percentage, but Barnes’ 7.4% walk rate and 46.7% ground-ball rate were each a bit better than the league average.

That showing was enough to attract the attention of the Busan-based Giants. While Barnes didn’t have the requisite service time to reject the Twins’ outright assignment, the organization evidently granted him his release to make the move to South Korea. That allows the South Carolina native to lock in a guaranteed salary for 2022 that’s better than he’d have made during his time in Triple-A. If Barnes performs well enough in the KBO to embark upon a major league return at some point down the line, he might also field MLB offers that surpass the near-league minimum salaries he’d have earned over his first few seasons had he remained with Minnesota.

In addition to the Barnes deal, the Giants also confirmed their previously-reported agreement with Glenn Sparkman. As Yoo points out, Barnes, Sparkman and DJ Peters are now locked in as the Giants’ three allotted foreign-born players. That officially closes the books on any chance of Dan Straily and Enderson Franco — both of whom pitched for the Giants last year — returning to the club in 2022.

Twins Release Willians Astudillo, Outright Charlie Barnes

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Twins utilityman Willians Astudillo cleared release waivers and is now a free agent, per a team announcement. Left-hander Charlie Barnes, meanwhile, went unclaimed on outright waivers and has been assigned to Triple-A St. Paul. He’ll remain with the club but will no longer require a 40-man roster spot. Both players were designated for assignment Friday.

Astudillo, 30, made his big league debut with the Twins back in 2018 and has since displayed an uncommon skill set and fairly rare level of defensive versatility. “La Tortuga” has played every position on the diamond, with the exception of shortstop. Astudillo worked as a catcher and corner infielder with the Phillies in his early days as a prospect and has continued to add more positions to his defensive profile. He’s not considered a plus defender anywhere, but Astudillo embodies the “jack of all trades, master of none” profile quite well.

More interesting is Astudillo’s unorthodox skill set at the plate. As free a swinger as there is in the game, the right-handed-hitting Astudillo also possesses uncanny bat-to-ball skills. He’s struck out just 25 times in 533 career plate appearances (4.7%), but his frequent hacking has led to an even smaller 1.9% walk rate. Astudillo has a bit of raw power, but he swings so early and so often, with such high contact rates, that he rarely finds himself in position to get a pitch to drive. Since 2018 (min. 500 plate appearances), Astudillo has the third-highest swing rate (60.1%) of any player in baseball and the second-highest contact rate (91.5%) — trailing only his now-former teammate Luiz Arraez in that regard.

Astudillo was arbitration-eligible and projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn a $1.2MM salary in 2022. Coming off a .236/.259/.375 slash in 216 plate appearances, however, it seems the Twins preferred not to allocate those dollars or a 40-man roster spot to him — particularly with so many prospects needing to be added to the 40-man roster. (Minnesota selected six players Friday.) Astudillo can now sign with any team.

The 26-year-old Barnes is a former fourth-rounder who made his big league debut out of necessity to help soak up some innings in an injury-ruined season for the Twins. He was clobbered for a 5.92 ERA while striking out just 20 of the 175 batters he faced, however. Barnes is a strike-throwing changeup artist whose fastball averaged just 89.9 mph in the Majors. However, he did managed a solid 3.79 ERA with a 19.1% strikeout rate and a 7.4% walk rate in 76 innings at the Triple-A level. He’ll stick with the organization for now and hope for another opportunity in 2022. As it stands, the Twins have a perilously thin mix of starting options, but Minnesota is expected to add several starters this winter.

Twins Designate Willians Astudillo, Charlie Barnes For Assignment

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The Twins are designating utilityman Willians Astudillo and left-hander Charlie Barnes for assignment, the club announced. Additionally, left-hander Devin Smeltzer and outfielder Kyle Garlick have cleared outright waivers. Minnesota added six prospects to the 40-man roster in advance of tonight’s deadline for Rule 5 draft protection: Royce Lewis, Jose Miranda, Blayne Enlow, Cole Sands, Chris Vallimont and Josh Winder.

Minnesota also announced that they’ve agreed to terms on a deal with outfielder Jake Cave on a major league contract. He’ll make $800K, reports Darren Wolfson of SKOR North (Twitter link). Cave had been projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for a $1.1MM salary via arbitration. It’s not uncommon to see players on the non-tender bubble (as Cave appeared to be) agree to salaries for a bit lower than projected in advance of the non-tender deadline, however.

Amidst this large flurry of Twins transactions it’s the one jettisoning Astudillo that may grab the most attention. While the 30-year old didn’t quite get it done at the plate this past season, producing a .236/.259/.375 slash, his Twins tenure has often left fans looking past his offensive contributions. Dating back to his 2018 debut with the Twins, Astudillo has lined up at every position except for shortstop, providing adequate defense and pitching as admirably as one can expect in mop-up duty (including a 2.25 ERA in four 2021 innings). The multi-talented Astudillo is now all but certainly headed for free agency, though a reunion with the Twins later in the offseason isn’t yet out of the question.

Barnes, 26, is a soft-tossing lefty and former fourth-rounder who made his big league debut out of necessity to help soak up some innings in an injury-ruined season for the Twins’ rotation. He was clobbered for a 5.92 ERA while striking out just 20 of the 175 batters he faced. The Twins now have a week to trade Barnes or attempt to pass him through outright waivers.

Also gone from the roster are Smeltzer, a former Dodger prospect who came to the Twins in the Brian Dozier trade, and Garlick, an offseason waiver claim last winter who played a platoon role in Minnesota early this season. Smeltzer logged a 3.86 ERA through 49 innings during the 2019 season, his debut campaign, but has battled injuries and seen his performance dip in the two years since. He missed nearly the entire 2021 season due to elbow troubles.

Garlick, meanwhile, hit .232/.280/.465 with five homers and eight doubles in just 107 plate appearances. He hit 10 extra-base hits (four homers, six doubles) in just 63 plate appearances against lefties but spent the majority of the season on the injured list himself.

Most of the Twins’ additions are wholly unsurprising. Lewis was the No. 1 overall pick in 2017 and, despite missing the season due to an ACL tear, was never going to be exposed to the Ryle 5 Draft. Miranda was the Twins’ minor league player of the year and posted video-game numbers in the minors, hitting his way into Top 100 consideration. Winder has battled injuries but might be Minnesota’s top pitching prospect based on stuff alone. Enlow was an overslot third-rounder who has had his own injury troubles but is still held in high regard. Sands and Vallimont both rank among the Twins’ more promising arms themselves, even though Vallimont had a down year in 2021. The former Marlins righty, acquired in the trade that brought Sergio Romo to Minnesota and sent first baseman Lewin Diaz to Miami, is a potential fourth/fifth starter who’s reasonably close to MLB readiness.

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