KBO: Sources say Yasiel Puig received an offer from Kiwoom Heroes

Yasiel Puig could have been back in the game, as he reportedly received an offer from the Kiwoom Heroes of the Korean Baseball Organization.

Various sources have reported about a courtship between Yasiel Puig and the KBO’s Kiwoom Heroes. As far fetched as this may sound it almost came to fruition and the Cienfuegos native almost became part of the Korean team.

According to various sources, Kiwoom had meetings with Puig and his representatives about signing with the ball club. A significant offer was made to the player and the Heroes GM Chi-Hyun Kim was confident he would sign with Kiwoom, but the player later came back and said he was waiting on an offer from an MLB team.

I did my own legwork on the subject and this is what I came up with. I reached out to Jeeho Yo of Yonhap News who is a KBO insider and this what he told me,”The Kiwoom Heroes say they were indeed in talks with Puig. The GM told me he felt he had a chance to sign Puig. But Puig decided that he wanted to give MLB another shot since the season there may begin (though no one knows exactly when).”

Last season Puig had a very good season hitting .267 with 24 homers, 84 runs batted in and a  slash line of .327/.458/.785 between Cincinnati and Cleveland in 149 games. For his career, the slugger has a .277/.348/.475 batting line, with 132 roundtrippers and 415 RBI’s.

Puig would have definitely brought star power to the Kiwoom Heroes and solidified right field. Although he didn’t have his best season in the field last year posting a fielding percentage of .977 and made six errors, he’s still an excellent defender.

His 57 outfield assists in seven seasons are astronomical and have the young Cuban boasting one of the best outfield arms in professional baseball.

The Heroes eventually signed ex-Cubs infielder Addison Russell to fill the roster spot that would have been taken by Puig had he signed with the club.