All eyes are on Lee Jung-hoo and Ko Woo-seok, who are brother-in-law and sister-in-law, to see if they can make it to Major League Baseball (MLB) together.
Both became “posted” on the same day, giving them a month to negotiate with all 30 major league clubs. Lee first made it to the MLB when he signed a massive six-year, $130 million (KRW 14.62 billion) contract with San Francisco on Nov. 15.
Before Lee, Shohei Ohtani signed a 10-year, $700 million (approx. KRW 921.9 billion) contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and as the destinations of big-name players are being determined in sequence, Ko’s time will soon come.
The first analysis is that the market is not bad.
The St. Louis Cardinals of the National League Central, the former team of Oh Seung-hwan and Kim Kwang-hyun, were the first to show interest in signing Go Woo-seok.
The Cardinals have fond memories of the Korean players, with Oh and Kim excelling in the organization.
In the West, the Arizona Diamondbacks and Seattle Mariners have been named as possible targets, while the MLB stalwart New York Yankees have also recently been reported to be considering a move.
Go won the KBO’s saves title last year with 42 saves. He also had a 1.48 ERA, making him one of the league’s best closers. This season, however, he has struggled with injuries, going just 3-8 with a 3.68 ERA in 15 saves.
However, while he may not be the best closer in the MLB, he’s still a solid closer and should be of interest to teams looking to bolster their bullpens.
The good news for Ko is that the MLB free agency market is in a shortage of pitchers, and the price of pitchers has been skyrocketing recently.
If you look at the recent free agent signings, most of them didn’t have stellar performances and had injury histories, but they were treated generously.
Negotiations are open until January 4 at 7 a.m. KST, but it is hoped that a new destination will be decided as early as this year.