The Kiwoom Heroes of the Korea Baseball Organization have released right-hander Eric Jokisch and signed left-hander Ian McKinney, per Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net (Twitter links). Kurtz adds that Jokisch was diagnosed with a partial tear in left abductor muscle and was set to miss six weeks. KBO teams are only allowed three roster spots for non-Korean players, so they have decided to quickly make this switch instead of waiting for Jokisch to recover.
Jokisch, 33, pitched 14 1/3 innings for the Cubs in 2014, which is the full extent of his major league experience. He has a far lengthier track record in the KBO, as this is the fifth season in which he’s pitched for the Heroes. He’s made 130 starts dating back to the 2019 season, with a 2.85 ERA in 773 1/3 innings. His strikeout rate has been in the 17-21% range for most of those seasons but he’s succeeded by reliably getting ground balls on over two thirds of balls in play.
That success has repeatedly led to him and the Heroes continuing their relationship, though it will now be severed by this injury, as the club will use the roster spot to add McKinney. The left-hander, now 28, was a fifth-round selection of the Cardinals in 2013. He was released in 2018 after topping out at Double-A. He later signed with the Mariners and made it as far as Triple-A in that organization but never made it to the majors.
In addition to that affiliated work, he’s also pitched for independent clubs, including this year. He’s made eight starts for the Gastonia Honey Hunters of the Atlantic League here in 2023, posting a 4.24 ERA in 46 2/3 innings, striking out 53 opponents while walking 11.
Jokisch will now be free to pursue other opportunities, though he may have to rehab from his injury first. His success in Korea led to some interest from MLB clubs prior to the 2021 season, though he ultimately stayed with the Heroes.
I ask again, why does the Korean League not face the vilification for limiting roster spots for foreign players? If MLB implemented a policy of just 3 foreign players per roster, it would be protested by 150 different groups.
The NPB has the same rules. Any protest in Korea would be extremely short and unkike the USA their businesses and government are not obsessed with the radicalized theory of “inclusion”
“If MLB implemented a policy of just 3 foreign players per roster,” then the Dominican League would be the MAJOR leagues
Since there are only 99 Dominican players in MLB, I seriously doubt that would be true. Because the best of those 99 would take up a large chunk of the 90 available spots.
Plus, MLB would still have the best distribution available for everyone to watch. Major leagues is not necessarily about being the best, but being seen by the most people.
“A total of 269 internationally born players representing 19 countries or territories outside the 50 United States were on 2023 Opening Day rosters.”
That’s roughly 9 foreign players per team. Dominicans aren’t the only ones; there’s Venezuelans, Cubans, and Mexicans just to name a few other countries players come from. Not to mention Australian players like Liam Hendriks would potentially fall under this rule, further muddying the situation. There would be far too many hurdles to implement this now unless there was a gradual decrease over many years in the allotted number of foreign players, and even then teams and the player’s association would never go for it.
Isn’t Jokisch left-handed?
He’s literally throwing with his left hand in the picture too lol, but yes he’s a LHP, but bats right handed. I think he’s sort of like Brett Cecil who is naturally right handed, but learned to throw lefty.
Phillies should be all over this.
Only in the US can people look around and think they are oppressed.
So you are saying that the rest of the world is not oppressed?
Wonder how much money he’s made in Korea. MLBTR tells me that the salary for a foreign-born player was capped at $1 million in 2019. But a Korean news service says that the cap has now been pushed upward to $4 million for the three foreign-born players combined. Plus there’s wiggle room of $100,000 per year of service time for a player who gets re-signed by the same club.
A team can go over the caps but there’s the usual penalty system for any overage.
Based on information i got in here
mykbostats.com/players/1840
Jokisch got about 1.2M this year