The Angels have released right-hander Zach Stewart so that he can pursue an opportunity in the Korean Baseball Organization, according to a team release. Stewart has agreed to join the KBO’s NC Dinos.
The 28-year-old joined the Halos last winter as a minor league free agent. He has seen good results thus far at Triple-A, throwing 39 1/3 innings of 3.43 ERA ball over eight starts and four relief appearances. It has been quite some time since Stewart has maintained a full-season earned run mark at that level.
Over 103 big league innings, all coming over 2011-12, Stewart owns a 6.82 ERA with 5.6 K/9 versus 1.9 BB/9. He saw action with the Blue Jays, White Sox, and Red Sox in that span.
A 2008 third-rounder out of Texas Tech, Stewart entered professional ball as a reliever but converted to starting and has mostly stayed in the rotation since. It remains to be seen what role he’ll have in Korea.
Dino-mite!
Again, the Seoul Glo miss on adding a nice arm
Crazy to believe in hindsight he was the expected biggest piece coming back in the Scott Rolen trade, and Encarnacion was essentially a throw-in.