Ryu, Dodgers reach 6-year, $36m deal

Published : 2012-12-10 09:03
Updated : 2012-12-10 18:09

S. Korean baseball pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin. (Yonhap News)

South Korean All-Star pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin has signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers in Major League Baseball (MLB), the Los Angeles Times reported Monday, Korean time.

The Times said the Dodgers "expect him to be part of the rotation next season" but added terms of the deal weren't immediately known.

Ryu and the Dodgers had a 30-day window to sign a deal after the LA-based club earned the exclusive negotiating rights to Ryu in November, and the deadline fell at 7 a.m. Monday, Korean time, or 2 p.m. Pacific Standard Time Sunday in Los Angeles. The Dodgers submitted a bid of $25.7 million in a league-wide silent auction, as part of the player posting process. It was the fourth highest bid by a major league club for a foreign player.

The negotiation period began after Ryu's South Korean club, the Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), accepted the Dodgers' bid.

With this signing, the Eagles will take the $25.7 million bid as a transfer fee for Ryu.

Had Ryu failed to sign a deal by the deadline, he would have been forced to return to the Eagles for 2013 and wouldn't have been eligible for posting until November next year. The Dodgers, in that case, would have retrieved their bid money.

Ryu, who completed his seventh KBO season in 2012, was posted by the Eagles in November. When he makes the major league roster, Ryu will become the first South Korean to jump directly from the KBO to the majors.

The Dodgers have been home to three South Korean players before Ryu, including right-hander Park Chan-ho, who became the first Korean to play in the majors in 1994.

Before Ryu, some Japanese stars have joined the majors via posting, and they have signed for packages similar to their posting fees. Ahead of the 2007 season, the Boston Red Sox signed right-hander Daisuke Matsuzaka to a six-year deal worth $52 million, after posting $51 million. Last year, Yu Darvish, also a right-hander, drew a bid of $51.7 million from the Texas Rangers and reached a six-year deal for $60 million.

The contract talks between the Dodgers and Ryu appeared to have hit a snag last week, with both sides playing hard ball through the local media. The Dodgers had said Ryu once rejected their offer of a long-term contract. The player's agent, Scott Boras, pressured the Dodgers that Ryu could play in Japan in 2013 and test free agency later without going through posting. Boras, who's built a reputation as a hard-nosed agent, had also argued that Ryu deserved to be paid like a No. 3 major league starter and cited Matsuzaka as an example.

Ryu will have to crack a deep Dodgers rotation with at least six established big league starters, including the 2011 Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw and former 20-game winner Josh Beckett. The Dodgers are reportedly closing in on signing yet another former Cy Young winner, right-hander Zack Greinke, and they have other established big-league starters such as Chris Capuano, Aaron Harang, Chad Billingsley and Ted Lilly.

Ryu has been one of the KBO's most dominant starters since his sensational debut in 2006, when he became the first player to win both the MVP and the Rookie of the Year honors in the same season.

He was 18-6 with a 2.23 ERA and a rookie-record 204 strikeouts.

This year, as the Eagles staggered to the KBO's worst record, Ryu went 9-9 with a 2.66 ERA and a league-leading 210 strikeouts in 182 2/3 innings.

The thick-bodied lefty, listed at 187 centimeters and 98 kilograms, has averaged more than 181 innings per season and led the league in strikeouts five times, mixing in his fastball with slider and changeup

He can reach up to 150 kilometers per hour (93 miles per hour) with his fastball, and can also throw a changeup and slider as his out pitches. (Yonhap News)