Major League Baseball (MLB) announced early Tuesday, Korean time, that the Pittsburgh Pirates have won the bidding for the posted South Korean shortstop Kang Jung-ho.The Pirates announced the news on their website, shortly after Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com tweeted that the Pirates had put in the winning bid for Kang in an MLB-wide silent auction held earlier this month.The Nexen Heroes, Kang's Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) club, on Saturday received the result of the bidding race and promptl

Dec. 23, 2014

South Korean expansion baseball club KT Wiz announced Monday they’ve signed right-hander Chris Oxspring.The Korea Baseball Organization team said they acquired the 37-year-old right-hander for $350,000, a figure that includes a signing bonus.Oxspring will now be pitching for his third KBO club. He first pitched for the LG Twins in 2007 and 2008, and then returned to South Korea to join the Lotte Giants, for whom he’d pitched the past two seasons.The Giants made him a free agent after the 2014 se

Dec. 22, 2014

South Korean expansion baseball club KT Wiz announced Monday they've signed right-hander Chris Oxspring.The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) team said they acquired the 37-year-old right-hander for US$350,000, a figure that includes a signing bonus.Oxspring will now be pitching for his third KBO club. He first pitched for the LG Twins in 2007 and 2008, and then returned to South Korea to join the Lotte Giants, for whom he'd pitched the past two seasons.The Giants made him a free agent after the

Dec. 22, 2014

South Korean shortstop Kang Jung-ho, about to enter contract talks with a Major League Baseball (MLB) club, said Sunday he wants to "shatter stereotypes" about Asian position players in the big leagues.Kang met the local media for the first time since his Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) club, the Nexen Heroes, accepted a US$5 million bid for the posted shortstop a day earlier. Though the identity of the bid winner has not been disclosed, the team will have exclusive rights to negotiate a contr

Dec. 21, 2014

The South Korean baseball club Nexen Heroes on Saturday said they have accepted a US$5 million bid by a Major League Baseball (MLB) club for their posted shortstop Kang Jung-ho, clearing the path for the slugger to play in the big leagues next season.The Heroes made the decision just hours after the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) informed them of the result of the MLB-wide silent auction for the 27-year-old player. The Heroes said the amount of the winning bid was $5,002,015.Kang is the third

Dec. 20, 2014

South Korean pitcher Kim Kwang-hyun, whose recent contract talks with a Major League Baseball club fell through, received a hefty raise from his current domestic club on Sunday.The SK Wyverns in the Korea Baseball Organization announced that they’ve re-signed their left-hander for 600 million won ($543,000), up from 270 million won he earned in 2014.Lotte Giants sign RaleyThe Lotte Giants announced Sunday they have signed American left-hander Brooks Raley. The team said Raley has agreed to a $45

Dec. 14, 2014

South Korean baseball club Hanwha Eagles announced Friday they have signed former Major League Baseball (MLB) outfielder Nyjer Morgan.The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) club inked the 34-year-old player for US$550,000 for 2015, along with a signing bonus of $150,000.Morgan has 598 big league games under his belt and is a career .282 hitter with 120 steals.He spent the 2013 season with the Yokohama DeNA BayStars in Japan, batting .294 with 11 home runs and 50 RBIs in 108 games.Morgan returned

Dec. 12, 2014

SAN DIEGO (AP) ― Pitcher Jon Lester agreed Tuesday night to a $155 million, six-year contract with the Chicago Cubs, a person familiar with the negotiations said, the first big deal of the offseason involving a top-level starting pitcher.Lester’s contract contains an option for 2021 that, if it becomes guaranteed, would make the deal worth $170 million over seven seasons. The average annual value of $25.8 million is the second highest for a pitcher behind Clayton Kershaw’s $30.7 million as part

Dec. 10, 2014

The nation’s top baseball league announced Tuesday it will introduce a wild card game for teams to battle for the final playoff berth starting in 2015.The Korea Baseball Organization said the fourth- and fifth-ranked teams after the regular season will clash for the right to compete in the first round of the postseason.The decision was reached at a board meeting of team presidents.In July, team officials had proposed to hold a one-and-done wild card game between No. 4 and No. 5 seeds only if the

Dec. 9, 2014

Andy Van Hekken, the left-handed starter for the Nexen Heroes, on Tuesday grabbed his first Golden Glove Award in the Korea Baseball Organization in a landslide.Van Hekken, the league's only 20-game winner who finished second with 178 strikeouts and third with a 3.51 ERA, was a well-deserving winner. The only foreign winner this year said afterward he wasn't surprised by the win itself, but by how handily he claimed the trophy.Van Hekken earned 278 out of 321 votes for his first Golden Glove. Ri

Dec. 9, 2014

The Nexen Heroes on Tuesday produced four winners of the Golden Glove Awards, presented to the best overall players at each position in the top South Korean baseball league, while Samsung Lions' slugger Lee Seung-yuop bagged his record-setting ninth Golden Glove.Nexen second baseman Seo Geon-chang, voted MVP of the Korea Baseball Organization  last month, led a list of four winners for the Heroes at a ceremony held in Seoul. Seo collected 292 out of 321 possible votes for his second Golden Glove

Dec. 9, 2014