Former Athletics righty Raul Alcantara will be signing on for a second season in Korea but will change teams, as Jee-ho Yoo of the Yonhap News Agency reports that Alcantara has agreed to a one-year contract with the Doosan Bears. He’ll earn a $700K salary with his new club.
Alcantara, who turned 27 earlier this month, spent the 2019 season pitching with the KT Wiz, for whom he logged a 4.01 ERA with 5.2 K/9, 1.4 BB/9 and 0.8 HR/9 in 172 2/3 innings (27 starts). His MLB experience is more limited, as the righty has only logged 46 1/3 innings in the big leagues, during which time scuffled to a 7.19 ERA.
Alcantara was never a high-end prospect when coming up through the Red Sox system, although the Athletics thought highly enough of him to acquire him alongside then-prospect Josh Reddick in the trade that sent closer Andrew Bailey from Oakland to Boston. He’ll pitch all of next season at 27, so even though his strikeout totals aren’t impressive, Alcantara is still someone worth tracking a bit as he continues his career in the KBO. A new pitch or some alteration that improves his ability to miss bats could eventually lead to interest from big league clubs, particularly if he’s able to maintain the strong control he’s always had.
Only 27? If he gets it together he might get a big MLB deal at 29.
Not sure 5.2 K/9 in the KBO will help him get a big MLB deal.
Yeah and he was actually relatively effective at every stop in the minors until he made it to the majors. Definitely needs to find a way to miss bats more frequently though. A 5.2 K/9 is pretty low — even if he has great control otherwise that seems like it might be an unsustainable level back stateside. If he can make some sort of adjustment or even just get it back up to around 7.5 or so (where it sat for parts of his minor league career) that could be enough to catch a ML team’s eye — wish him the best!
Or he might eat a helluva lot of *kimchee
*not sure on the spelling of aged cabbage
he really couldnt get more in the MLB given how much guys have been getting this year?
Bailey, Thornburg, what other relievers have the Red Soxs made big mistakes trading for?
Carson smith count? Red Sox did not lose much on that one though
LG needs to get their act together!