Dan Straily Signs With KBO’s Lotte Giants

The Lotte Giants of the Korea Baseball Organization announced the signing of veteran right-hander Dan Straily yesterday (h/t to Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News Agency). The Apex Baseball client will receive $400K for the remainder of the 2022 season.

Straily, 33, is a familiar face for the Busan-based club. He pitched with Lotte between 2020-21, starting his tenure there with a 2.50 ERA through 194 2/3 innings his first season. The second year wasn’t quite as dominant, as Straily allowed a bit more than four earned runs per nine across 165 2/3 frames. That’s still solid production, though, and the Giants tried to bring him back for a third season. Straily declined Lotte’s contract offer over the offseason as he set his sights on a return to the major leagues.

In February, Straily signed a minor league deal with the Diamondbacks. He spent the season at Triple-A Reno, starting 12 of his 15 appearances. He managed just a 6.35 ERA in an extremely hitter-friendly environment, however, and the D-Backs passed on a few opportunities to bring him back to the majors. They signed Dallas Keuchel after he’d been released by the White Sox and turned to Tyler Gilbert to plug the back of the rotation once Zach Davies landed on the injured list in late June. According to his transactions log at MLB.com, Straily was released by the D-Backs on Monday to pursue the KBO opportunity.

While Straily didn’t reach the big leagues in Arizona, he got to the majors each season from 2012-19. Over that stretch, he suited up with the A’s, Cubs, Astros, Reds, Marlins and Orioles. An effective back-of-the-rotation arm for the majority of the time, he posted four seasons with 100+ innings and an ERA of 4.26 or lower. He owns a 4.56 mark in just more than 800 MLB innings.

Yoo relays that the Giants are releasing former big league hurler Glenn Sparkman in a corresponding roster move. The right-hander pitched for the Blue Jays and Royals between 2017-20, including a 136-inning campaign for Kansas City in 2019. He split last season between the Orix Buffaloes in Japan and the Twins’ Triple-A affiliate before signing with the Giants over the winter.

Sparkman made 19 starts and tallied 84 2/3 innings with Lotte, but he managed only a 5.31 ERA. The 30-year-old struck out a decent 23.1% of batters faced, but he walked batters at an elevated 11.1% clip and generally struggled to keep runs off the board. Now that he’s a free agent, Sparkman could explore minor league opportunities stateside.