Texas Rangers win rights to Hyeon-jong Yang, not Minnesota Twins
By Aaron Somers
Conflicting reports have circulated the past few days regarding which MLB team did in fact win the rights to negotiate with left-hander Hyeon-jong Yang. Saturday morning it was believed that the Minnesota Twins had submitted the highest bid for the 26 year old Korean, but by late Sunday night the word out of Korea was that the Texas Rangers won instead.
As of early afternoon Monday there has been no confirmation.
Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press reported Saturday morning that a source had told him that not only were the Twins the high bidders, but the two sides were already nearing an agreement to bring Yang to Minnesota. Per KBO rules, the two sides would have a 30-day window to negotiate a contract but Berardino’s report suggested an urgency by the Twins to get a deal completed.
Various sources, including FOX Sports’ C.J. Nitkowski, were reporting Sunday that the Rangers were the ones with the highest bid. Nitkowski noted that they’d offered a posting fee of $1.5 million. No specifics have been revealed regarding how much the Twins may have bid, but speculation has it between $700,000 and $1.5 million.
All along there has been concern, however, that Yang’s team in Korea – the Kia Tigers – may not accept the winning bid. Yang won the league’s inaugural Choi Dong-won Award (the equivalent to the Cy Young) this past season and the team has seemed reluctant to allow their top pitcher to depart to pursue a career in MLB. Yang’s made it known that his dream is to come to the major leagues and he’s reportedly been pushing the team to accept it, no matter what the amount ends up being.
The KBO has informed MLB that the Tigers decision will be shared no later than 4 PM EST Friday.
Yang, who’ll turn 27 in March, made 28 starts and threw 171.1 IP this past season with a 16-8 record and 4.25 ERA. The KBO is an offensive heavy league and as Berardino notes, Yang’s ERA was 18.5% better than the league average. That would equate to a 3.05 ERA this past season in MLB (league average was 3.74).
It’s worth noting that the Choi Dong-won Award is only given to the top Korean-native pitcher from the league. International players are ineligible for consideration. Both Rick van den Hurk (13-4, 3.18 ERA) and Andy Van Hekken (20-6, 3.51 ERA) had better overall seasons than Yang but could not win.