Pittsburgh Pirates Win Bid For Jung-Ho Kang

The Pittsburgh Pirates have been a team to surprise folks on the field in recent seasons. Monday afternoon, the Pirates made a surprise off-field, winning the bid for Korean shortstop Jung-Ho Kang.

The St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco Giants, New York Mets, Oakland Athletics, and Minnesota Twins all had shown interest in the 27-year-old. The winning bid for Kang was $5,002,015. The Pirates will have a 30 day window to sign the prized shortstop

To be frank, Pirates fans should be very excited and intrigued with the potential signing of Kang. In his eight seasons in the Korean Baseball League, Kang made five trips to their all-star game. He has also flashed ability with the glove, earning 4 gold gloves in his native land.

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But what comes off as most impressive is Kang’s 2014 campaign. Despite standing only 6 feet and weighing only 180 lbs., the Korean Phenom belted 40 home runs and drove in 117 runs in 117 games last year. Kang contributed a .356 batting average, and led the KBL in slugging percentage at .739 on his way to winning the KBL Most Valuable Player award.

An international player with this type of potential and talent has to garner a king’s ransom for the MLB team that wants to sign him, right? Most of the time you would be right, however, not for Kang. Reports say that the Korean superstar may be flexible to a three- or four-year deal worth only $5 million per season.

Those numbers are dwarfed by the contract Korean pitcher Hyun-jin Ryu signed two years ago. Ryu signed a 6-year, $36 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers who obtained his services after negotiations with his KBL team. And with the success of Ryu through his first two seasons in the league (28 wins and a 3.17 ERA), this deal is an easy slam dunk for the Pirates front office. Neal Huntington also gets a feather in his cap for his great international signing.

The real question surrounding Kang for the Pirates is simple. Where is he going to play? Kang has experience at both short and second, but each spot is entrenched by Jordy Mercer and Neil Walker.

But if the Pirates do end up signing Kang and he shows the same ability that won him an MVP award in Korea, someone is moving to the bench. And there are several possible ways for the Pirates to handle this. It could place Kang at short, moving Mercer to the bench, or Kang to second and Walker to the bench.

Pedro Alvarez’s progression at first base also must factor into the equation. If Alvarez struggles either defensively or offensively in Spring Training or early on in 2015, Walker could be asked to learn first base.

Whether Walker learns first base during Spring Training, the regular season or not at all remains to be seen. It all depends how Alvarez and Kang do in their transitions. Walker moving to first keeps Mercer at short while Kang would slide in at second.

Wherever the Pirates decide to put Kang is a win-win for the club. Players who can consistently hit for power and flash the leather in the middle infield are hard to come by. Kang could bat second or towards the bottom of the lineup for the Pirates. He batted eighth for Korea in the 2013 World Baseball Classic.

Either way, the Pirates might have found one of the remaining pieces to their championship winning puzzle. They did not find fool’s gold with Kang, only the real McCoy.

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Pittsburgh Pirates Win Bid For Korean Shortstop Jung-Ho Kang

By Rich Donahue | Dec 22, 2014