Two of South Korea’s top players are still waiting to see if they will join Major League Baseball next season, as Jeeho Yoo of the Yonhap News Agency provides updates on both left-hander Hyeon-Jong Yang and outfielder Sung-Bum Na (Twitter link).
Beginning with Yang, the southpaw is looking for a guaranteed MLB deal rather than a split contract, according to Yang’s agent In-gook Choi. Yang is willing to “be flexible” about being sent to the minors without his consent, Choi said, “but we won’t take a split deal.”
There hasn’t been much publicly-known information about Yang’s free agency since news broke back in October about his plan to explore a jump to North America. Yoo goes so far as to describe the longtime Kia Tigers hurler as “almost a forgotten free agent,” perhaps owing to Yang’s subpar 2020 season. The lefty posted a 4.70 ERA, 19.97 K% and 8.6 BB% over 172 1/3 innings for the Tigers last season, with that ERA standing out as Yang’s highest in the last eight seasons.
It isn’t the platform year that Yang wanted as he prepared to market himself to Major League teams, and it remains to be seen what type of offers he might land as he heads into his age-33 season. Choi said that “teams that are still trying to fill out their rotation have shown interest” and predicts that Yang will get more attention once Tomoyuki Sugano’s posting period is up on Thursday. However, a concrete offer for Yang will have to come soon — Choi and Yang have set a mid-January date for a decision either way, so Yang will have adequate time to get ready for the 2021 season whether he pitches in North America or for another KBO League team.
Yang is a full free agent, and thus doesn’t have to face any international signing restrictions or the KBO/MLB posting system. Whereas Yang’s mid-January deadline is self-imposed, however, Na is subject to a 30-day posting window that lasts until 4pm CT on January 9. As Yoo plainly puts it, there is “not much buzz around Na so far” as his posting deadline draws near.
The 31-year-old slugger is coming off one of his finest of his eight seasons with the NC Dinos, as Na hit .324/.390/.596 with 34 home runs over 584 plate appearances. Despite this performance, Na spent much of his time as a designated hitter in 2020, in the aftermath of a major knee injury that cost him much of the 2019 season. The status of Na’s knee and how it impacts both his speed and his ability to regularly play the outfield) is of natural concern to any Major League suitors. Na has already made the trip to North America, Yoo writes, as Na has been working out at the Boras Corporation’s training facilities in California.
So their agent’s name is In-gook Choi. This isn’t baseball related, but I was just curious if “In” is a common or rare name in Korean culture. It’s a cool name, but I just don’t know how common it is.
korean names usually have 3 letters including the last name. his name would be inkook choi but they started using a hyphen between two first name letters.
Just want the Sugano signing thought it was happening today
As long as it happens by Thursday. These posting periods are kind of nice in that we’re guaranteed some sort of news by a given deadline, though I believe that if he doesn’t get a deal done in time, the team is allowed to re-post him if it wants.
what doesnt make sense is why there is such a short window. do these foreign teams not want to lose their players but had to concede some power to them? if so they why willingly post them? i know there is some precedent to being posted twice in a row, (the name of the player – a reliever i think – escapes me) but i wonder why its very little. does the team pay to have the player posted? i feel like it would happen more frequently if there was no drawback to a terribly tepid market.
Meh, the deadline to work out a trade deal for a waiver is far tighter. They have ample time, IMO, to talk to agents and weigh offers. I don’t know if there’s a cost to post, but I imagine it’s negligible and it could be timed to be later in the offseason, when teams are more serious about getting stuff done..
Word is there’s a decent chance Sugano doesn’t ink a deal w/ a big-league club prior to the Thursday deadline.
Before nightfall, there will be RS fans in here wondering why Bloom didn’t sign both these guys.
At least one will complain about not signing In-gook Choi, not realizing that he is the agent, not the player.
Not a Red Sox fan, but honestly, they need some OF help and a lot of pitching help. It doesn’t make too much sense, given the holes in their rotation, to go big on an OF when that money is better spent on starting pitchers. Getting Na would potentially help with the OF, while either of the other two could bolster that staff. They could do worse than sign 2 of the 3.
Ingkok could probaby join the rotation
Sox already have J.D. Martinez for part-time OF/full-time DH duty, Na would be redundant if his knee is still an issue.
Yang can’t be any worse than what they threw out on the mound last season. Would rather have Sugano but at this point the Sox need to add pitching, doesn’t matter what country they get it from
Replacing bad pitching, with more bad pitching, isn’t helpful.
So, let me guess…. The BlueJays are interested in both players?
Kind of a tired joke by now. Not saying it isn’t true…
Gee you forgot the Mets didn’t you?
Mets are interested
i wonder what Yang’s threshold is. if he would take a guaranteed league minimum with incentives and a vesting option or two i dont see why any team in a year where backend options are lacking wouldnt be interested to some degree.
he has been the best kbo pitcher for some time. i doubt he’d take minimum and would rather go to japan or back to korea.
he pitched to an ERA of 4.70 last year
this past season in kbo had been the most offense dominated one.
From the offensive numbers I’ve seen in the KBO recently, having a 4.70 ERA might earn you some votes for whatever their Cy Young award equivalent is.
For comparison purposes, on the Kia team
Yang 4.74 ERA 2.33 K/W
Gagnon 4.34 ERA 2.20 K/W and Gagnon got absolutely hammered in 2 MLB seasons
Aaron Brooks 2.50 ERA 5.42 K/W
In other words, Yang was about as good as someone that had a cup of coffee in the MLB, and not half as good as someone who had a 6.49 in the MLB.
I mentioned this exact same thing in a post in the last day or two. I could make up an Asian player called Joe-san and someone will want to know why their team passed on them.
All I see among the Free Agent pitchers is back end starters. No lack there.
Until more MLB players start getting signed, the MLBPA should release a statement or have a quota/cap on international players this offseason; so many of them with similar statistics, and algorithms and sabermetrics are nearly impossible to predict them all.
It’s great they want to come to MLB and dictate their own terms (“no split contract”), but we have plenty of players still waiting to be signed here, so they might as well wait until next offseason. MLB GM’s have plenty of players to choose from as it is.
Disagree entirely with this. KBO, NPB, Cuban, and other int’l players all carry risk because those leagues essentially equate to upper minors, with NPB probably the closest to MLB quality. If a GM wants to take a chance, why shouldn’t they? Also, why should MLB players get to keep their jobs if there are better, more cost effective options just because they’re already MLB players?
I forgot about bum, Arizona should sign him… the two bum starters
Yang sounds like at best a 5th starter or a swingman out of the bullpen. Na being a 31 year old slugger who was mostly relegated to DH may have a tougher market as there are several of those types already available in free agency that aren’t subject to a posting system and will probably come cheaper
One thing to note about Yang is that he had a rough start to the 2019 AND 2020 seasons before pitching much better (although 2020 he wasn’t as excellent after the rough start compared to 2019.) Yang was the third best start pitcher on the Kia Tigers this last year (Aaron Brooks and Drew Gagnon were both better overall.) If Yang returns to the Kia Tigers he will likely be the #3 starter behind Brooks and Mengden and just above Ki-Young Im who wasn’t as horrible as his ERA suggests. He’s still a back end guy in the MLB despite not being at his best in 2020.
Na I think I’d pass on Bum
I doubt Na is signed. He doesn’t walk much and is way too much of a free swinger. He chases too much and swings out of his shoes often. His difficulties catching up to fastballs and recognizing off speed in that league will become exacerbated if he comes to MLB.
Yang I could see getting a deal, but that 89 mph 4 seamer coupled with his slider and changeup both sitting at 81mph make me wary he will be anything more than a 5th starter. Possibly moved to the bullpen in hopes of his fastball playing up, thereby making his secondary offerings more useful. His margin for error is just too small as a starter IMO.
Now they definitely will be offered contracts. But I’d guess below their target and below what their teams in the KBO will pay them so the will just return.