Thirty-two-year-old lefty Kyle Hart isn’t a household name but nonetheless stands as an interesting free agent for clubs seeking rotation depth this winter. The southpaw has pitched in just one big league season, yielding 19 runs in 11 innings for the Red Sox during the shortened 2020 season. Hart, however, has a decent Triple-A track record and just tore through the Korea Baseball Organization in 2024, logging 157 innings with a 2.69 ERA, 28.8% strikeout rate and 6% walk rate. He was awarded the Choi Dong-won Award — the KBO equivalent of MLB’s Cy Young Award — for those efforts.
MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes reports today that Hart has some level of interest from six big league clubs, one of whom has been trying to free up some payroll space before adding Hart or another free agent. At the very least, that’s indicative of a team (or teams) being willing to put forth a big league offer to sign the lefty. Though there hasn’t been much reporting on Hart’s ongoing free agency this winter, he was linked to the Orioles, Astros, Twins, Brewers and Yankees in late December. More than half the league is reported to have at least checked in, though that obviously doesn’t indicate serious interest from all those parties.
Hart’s breakout overseas is reminiscent of recent KBO success stories like Erick Fedde, Chris Flexen and Merrill Kelly, among others. That said, he’ll pitch all of next season at 32. That’s a notable difference from recent KBO-to-MLB arms. Fedde returned ahead of his age-31 season and had the benefit of being a former first-round pick and top prospect. Kelly was 30 when he signed a modest two-year deal with Arizona on the back of a terrific four-year run in South Korea. Flexen’s lone season in the KBO was his age-25 campaign. He returned on a two-year deal with the Mariners at just 26 years old. Of the bunch, Fedde’s $15MM guarantee over two years is the largest contract.
Hart is older than the rest of that group and lacks the prospect pedigree Fedde had. Like many of those pitchers, however, he’s benefited from demonstrable changes to his pitching repertoire since heading to the KBO. He added a new sweeper this season, began throwing his four-seamer up in the zone/above the zone to get some chases, and has used his changeup more heavily. His heater isn’t the type of power offering that modern teams covet, sitting low-90s and peaking around 94 mph, but it’s generally easier for a lefty to get by with lesser velocity than a righty.
Whether that’s enough to sell a major league front office on his viability as a big league rotation cog remains to be seen. Fedde, the most successful of the group in the KBO, won the Choi Dong-won and was named KBO MVP after posting a flat 2.00 ERA with better strikeout and walk rates (29.5% and 4.9%, respectively) than Hart turned in this past season.
If not a return to Major League Baseball, Hart will still have ample opportunity to earn money in Asia. He’s drawn interest from both KBO clubs and teams in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, per Dierkes.
Might be the most random “latest on” article in MLBTR history. Hope he can succeed transitioning back to North America.
So just because you pay so little attention that you aren’t aware of him does not make it random. He has been talked about in many spots as a great low cost addition.
jd – I remember him well.
He was a bit strange with the Red Sox, wore his sunglasses at night.
But he battled on the mound, he would never surrender.
FPG,
You’re thinking of his uncle, Corey.
He liked to hand out with Mr. Feldman and Mr. Haim.
Is it a coincidence that all of those guys abroad and when they came back had much better control? Teams focus too much on “stuff” during development and not enough on throwing strikes.
Kyle The Hitman Hart will get paid by somebody.
Hey man, if someone is willing to give him like 2 years/$30M or 4 years/$70M etc. good for him, whether or not his results will translate.
I doubt he’d get that much in FA. He’d be in a similar situation as Fedde was last off-season, so I think 2 yr/$15MM would probably be closer.
He will have to settle for 1 yr/6.5M
He’d get 3x that if he would simply learn a certain pitch…..
I heard that certain pitch does not get rave reviews similar to Peter O’Brien’s defense at catcher and in the outfield.
Hart is probably looking at a 2/$8M offer at the most as one year of success in Korea isn’t a guarantee of even moderate success in MLB. He didn’t make much money in Korea last year and won’t make more than $2-$3M if he decides to re-sign over there for another season.
He may get a MLB offer of $3M for 1 year with a team option of $5M for year 2 with a $500K buyout. If offered that, Hart would jump on that immediately as his age is not doing him any favors.
With zero record of success in the MLB, it would be surprising to me to see him get more than $2 million to $2,500,000 per year, and a year with an option at most. He might get an offer from a ‘second division’ team, but I would be shocked for a legitimate contender giving him an MLB contract rather than a minor league deal.
Hart would be good for batting practice
The Korean Cy Young being called the Choi Dong makes me strangely happy.
I know this post isn’t about the Cards, but they need to add a reliever.
Seems like a possible fit for the Braves. They’ve got around $10M to spend to stay under the 1st luxury tax tier and need another lefty pen arm. Two years for $8M. $4M first year w/a $2M buyout on the second year option.
O’s could continue to load up on 4/5’s by signing him. Soon they’ll have as many 4/5’s as the Dodgers have 1/2’s. lol