Hyun Jin Ryu isn’t ready to say goodbye to Major League Baseball. Speaking with Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News, the 36-year-old pitcher didn’t offer much insight about his impending free agency, saying, “I don’t know what to tell you at this point. I think we’ll have to wait and see. Only time will tell.” However, while his comments weren’t very revealing, they make it sound like he isn’t planning to retire, at least without testing the waters of free agency first.
To that end, Ryu reconfirmed that when he is ready to leave MLB, he will return to the KBO to finish his career with the Hanwha Eagles. He played for the Eagles from ages 19 to 25. “I haven’t changed my mind on that,” he said. “I will absolutely make that happen.” Once again, his response implies that retirement isn’t on his mind quite yet.
Ryu signed a four-year, $80MM contract with the Blue Jays ahead of the 2020 season. The southpaw excelled during the first year of the deal, pitching to a 2.69 ERA and finishing third in voting for the AL Cy Young. He was solid but hardly ace-like the following season, posting a 4.37 ERA in 31 starts. Unfortunately, his next two campaigns were marred by injury. Ryu needed Tommy John surgery last summer, and he made just 17 starts from 2022-23. He was serviceable upon his return, rejoining the Blue Jays rotation for August and September, but his underlying numbers were worrisome (17% strikeout rate, 4.70 SIERA), and he failed to make the roster for the AL Wild Card Series.
Ryu will be 37 next season, but given his long track record of success and his dominant run from 2018-20, he should draw some interest this winter. If he doesn’t receive any offers to his liking, perhaps he’ll consider heading back to the KBO, but at least for now, it seems like he’s planning to pitch another MLB season in 2024.
In other news from the AL East…
- Tyler Wells lost his job in the Orioles’ rotation this summer. He was optioned just ahead of the trade deadline, and he transitioned to a relief role at Triple-A. About eight weeks later, the towering right-hander earned a call-up back to the big leagues, where he made four scoreless appearances out of the Orioles’ bullpen. He made three more scoreless appearances in the playoffs, taking the mound in all three of Baltimore’s ALDS games. Yet in spite of his success out of the ’pen, the Orioles are expecting Wells to rejoin the starting rotation in 2024, according to Rich Dubroff of BaltimoreBaseball.com. In 20 starts last year, the 29-year-old pitched to a 3.98 ERA and a 4.28 SIERA. However, he looked much stronger over the first three months of the season before he ran out of gas in July. With another year of big league experience under his belt, the Orioles will hope he can stick around for a full season in the rotation.
- In the latest edition of his Yankees Beat newsletter, Bryan Hoch of MLB.com touched on the team’s surplus of options in the middle infield. He suggests the Yankees could look to trade Gleyber Torres, but the possibility of dealing Oswald Peraza is not up for discussion. Torres is a talented second baseman, but he’s a known quantity at this point, whereas Peraza has untapped potential at the plate and in the field. What’s more, the Yankees only have one year of team control remaining over Torres, while Peraza won’t even be eligible for arbitration for at least three more seasons.
these “you have to trade torres, you’ve gotta make room for peraza” updates are gonna drive me insane. i watched the team all this year. the idea that they would get rid of one of the only good hitters on the team is so deeply stupid it’s infuriating, and i fully expect them to do it. i’m gonna watch this team next year and aaron judge will be getting walked 50% of the time as the team gets shut out night after night.
Ok with me lol
I think the idea behind trading Gleyber is rather simple. The Yankees have too many question marks right now to become legitimate World Series contenders over the course of one offseason. Gleyber is entering his final year of control, has trade value in a thin free agent class, and probably isn’t worth signing to an expensive long term deal. The Yankees should cash in on him now, take the next season to evaluate their younger players, then plan to go all in for 2025
The value is not as much as you seem to think. Not much surplus value at his salary next season. Some but not much
This free agent class is weak on the position player side and there really aren’t any available starting caliber middle infielders. A team looking to improve their lineup there could definitely look to Gleyber. All it takes is a couple serious suitors and you suddenly have a bidding war
Good call. I think that a guy projected to make $15.3M this year and probably commands a contract in the neighborhood of 6/120 after next year isn’t something the Yankees want to invest in.
It’s going to take a lot more than 6/120 to extend or sign Gleyber as a F.A. I’d do 7/140.in a heartbeat this offseason if that’s his cost which is highly unlikely
Yeah it’s real simple alright
@Ronk325: “The Yankees have too many question marks right now to become legitimate World Series contenders over the course of one offseason. The Yankees should cash in on him now, take the next season to evaluate their younger players, then plan to go all in for 2025”
The problem with this is that the Yankees payroll outlook doesn’t get a whole lot better going forward. They have around $150 million committed to Judge, Stanton, Cole, Rodon, and LeMahieu in 2024, 2025, and 2026. 2027 only drops LeMahieu’s $15 million off that. And there’s not much difference between next year and 2025 (only significant contracts gone in 2025 are Rizzo’s $17 million and Kahle’s ~$6 million, assuming they don’t exercise Rizzo’s deal).
They really better hope a few of the younger guys develop well or that Cortes and Rodon bounce back or it’s going to be a rough (relatively speaking; Yankees are still a decent team) couple of years.
All true. However, I suppose the Yankees could go full Steve Cohen, eat the money on the bad contracts, and enter into a short term period of record payroll in order to purge the dead weight while rebuilding a competitive roster. I know Hal hasn’t shown a willingness to take this approach so far, but if any team in baseball can afford that approach, it’s still the Yankees.
Agreed. Peraza is bench player at best. He shows little likelihood of being a .220 hitter in the majors.
Agree 100%. They NEED his bat
The idea of trading Torres isn’t about making the team weaker; it’s about shifting Torres’ value to another needed area. Maybe they get a LFer, and then have a Peraza/Volpe DP tandem for a decade. Lose some offense (although don’t sleep on Peraza) but gain on defense and overall improve the team.
I’m not saying they should trade him, but we shouldn’t reflexively say no to trading him either.
I couldn’t agree more. I will take the surefire production we know Torres can produce plus it’s his walk year. You know he is going to play it up looking for a megadeal. What happens if they trade Torres, Peraza turns out to need more seasoning, DJL and Rizzo get injured and Volpe has his sophomore slump? Peraza can stay in Scranton until the first injury happens. Or what I like better is shifting Torres to 3rd. He has the perfect bat for a 3rd baseman. They should just extend him this off-season. Give him a 5 year deal and call it a day. Peraza can take 2nd and make DJL the super utility. You already know every Yankee except the backup catcher and Torres loves the IL. There will be a definite need for good depth next year because I am sure Cashman will sign Andrew Heaney if he opts out instead of bringing Monty back. He should buy low on Manea as well. Guy is lights out at Yankee Stadium.
Na. Baseball is better when the Red Sox and Yankees battle for the division title. And this is coming from the far West.
Baseball is far worse when the Red Sox and Yankees are shoved down every other markets throat.
Have they really been shoved down everyone’s throats the last decade? Look at Mets, Padres, Dodgers. They’ve spent more.
Gimme a better one then.
That rivalry is probably the biggest in sports. More people like the Yankees than all the other teams on a national radar. The Red Sox aren’t far behind.
I’d love if the Yankees trade Gleyber – a Red Sox fan
I understand some guys take time to develop and find their power swing, etc. but I kinda wonder… a lot of these Triple-A All Stars don’t quite translate to the big leagues.
Torres was over hyped and while he’s turned out to be a serviceable big league player with some power, he hasn’t really been *the* *generational* prospect he was touted as.
Makes me wonder about any and all of these prospects.
Judge lived up and continues to live up to the hype. That’s about it.
So I wonder about everybody else like that. I realize prospects are a little like lottery tickets or slot machines or whatever- they’re a gamble and gambling can absolutely pay off but for the most part it doesn’t.
Anyway, I think the Yankees are in a tough spot with all of this. Torres isn’t good enough and the holes in his game probably won’t get fixed. He is who and what he is.
I am skeptical about Peraza’s potential now.
I worry about a guy who’s results in the minors show a ton of power, but still has relatively pedestrian batting averages against the weaker pitching.
It means he really won’t be able to hit much against big league pitchers. I realize he might connect on a few home runs and long doubles, but he won’t get the hits often enough for those outliers to matter much.
It’s because the yankees’ player development is a travesty. they produce major-league caliber hitters at a lower rate than any other team in the league. when they luck into getting a player (developed elsewhere) as good as torres, who isn’t a megastar but is certainly one of the better-hitting second basemen in the league and is still only 26, they should just extend him. it is better to have more good players on your team. people way overthink this and it leads to idiotic decisions like staking your team’s offense on oswald peraza, who no honest prospect evaluator has ever even said was gonna be a good hitter.
Yeah- it really does seem like more than any other club in the league, the Yankees get guys through trades or bring guys up from the minors and then the player proceeds to be terrible- the Yankees trade them or release them and they get picked up by another team and suddenly they’re decent to very good or at least better than they were as a Yankee.
A lot of those ex Yankees have consistently talked about how the Yankees player development and coaching approach messed up their form and their mechanics and they had to fix all of that once they left the Yankees.
Feels like the Yankees think that because their broken clock of a system is right or functional twice a day, the other 22 times it’s wrong or deeply flawed can be ignored.
But, I think Hal is finally accepting these are serious issues that need to be addressed and he might actually manage to overhaul the development and coaching staffs.
As weird as regime changes are, if they got rid of Cashman and if they got rid of most or all of their coaches and they got rid of Boone, etc. and then the Yankees were much better and playoff calibre and stayed healthier under completely new management, I’d be very happy.
I agree with most of this, but I don’t think you can say ‘developed elsewhere’ for Torres. He played his age 17 and 18 years with the Cubs (rookie and A ball). All told, he played about as many games in the minors for the Yanks and has played pretty well in the majors. Yankees should at least get partial credit.
If I was Hal, I’d put a shock collar on Cashman anytime the word trade comes up.
Torres to Giants for Yaz
Who says no ????
The Yankees.
I think so, but that’d be close. If Yaz were younger than he is, I think both teams do it.
Torres and Yaz.
If the Yankees are committed to Peraza, then play Peraza.
That should be fairly straightforward. If they have soured on his ability, then they should cash in on a trade. But he is a recent top 50-60 prospect. At some point, you need to give him a chance.
Tim Dierkes mentioned something about the Cubs and Yankees working out a deal for DJ. The Yankees would probably have to pay down the contract to get anything back, but I can see a scenario where that could work out for both teams.
Yankees only had 2 hitters better than league average, judge and Torres. If they have any hope of being competitive they have to keep him, at least until the deadline when they’re 10 games out of a WC. This new crop of “elite” prospects are just another in the line of overrated yankee players. Maybe they’ll be good if they sign Belli, Ohtani, Chapman and Hader lmao
Tyler Wells didnt ‘lose’ his job in the Orioles rotation. He was taken out to curb his innings.
Yep. Orioles r managing his TJ surgery recovery with focused caution.
Speaking of TJ injuries and recovery, if nobody wants Ryu, could he be the next vet (following Lyles and Gibson) on a one yr deal? Orioles FO does have a track record of bringing in pitchers from other orgs with this injury background. Exhibit A being Wells.
Wasn’t too long ago people on this site were begging Cashman to sign LeMahiau. Now everyone wants Cashman to send him packing and eating money.
Oh, what a thrilling revelation from Hyun Jin Ryu! I’m on the edge of my seat with his groundbreaking insight into his future. He doesn’t know what to tell us about free agency; what a shocker. And the bombshell that he hasn’t changed his mind about returning to the KBO – truly earth-shattering stuff. I mean, who could have predicted a 36-year-old pitcher with a history of injuries might want to explore free agency before retiring? As for Tyler Wells, the Orioles are expecting him to rejoin the starting rotation in 2024. What a surprise! He goes from starting to relieving and back to starting. That’s some next-level strategy right there. And the Yankees considering trading Gleyber Torres but not Oswald Peraza? Groundbreaking analysis! Torres might be good, but Peraza is young and has untapped potential. Who cares about Torres’ track record and that pesky one year of team control? Peraza’s the future! Bravo, baseball insiders, for these revelatory insights.
Wells seems like a perennial underdog. I think he’s probably a 4th starter. Gives up a fair number of home runs, but generates a ton of pop ups, too, which helps his “fly ball” tendencies.
About a 2 WAR starter in a full season, though he hasn’t shown the ability to stay healthy and conditioned for that period yet.
Would honestly love to see Ryu Hyun-Jin sign with NYY
The Korean Media presence in NYC would eat it up and would see a fair amount of ticket sales from the Korean Population as well.
Also NYY needs Lefty Pitchers.
Hal could solve most problems in a single off-season if he spent money correctly.
1. Stanton is owed what 128M with 30M covered by Miami? So that’s 98M. Covering another 30-40M could get him traded.
2. Bellinger could be had. He can play Center until Dominguez is back. He can then slide over to 1st and Rizzo finish out the year at DH. Or he can move over to left field.
3. Everson, Florial, Jones, and 2 mid tier pitchers (not Thorpe) could be a realistic package for Soto.
By years end he could have added 3 future all star left handed bats to the starting roster.
4. He could win a bidding war against Cohen for Yamamoto and bring back Montgomery.
Now I’m sure people will chime in and say it’s not going to happen, but that’s not the point of this. The point is that Hal could solve the problems in a single off-season if he would spend correctly.
So remember when things don’t get fixed it’s not because it couldn’t be fixed, but because Hal chose not to for his own financial gain at the expense of the fans.
Yanks had no offense and we should trade our 2nd best hitter this past season? Sure that makes sense. Maybe one of those P players will hit .200 or be the next Jeter.