No MLB bids for posted 3B Hwang Jae-gyun
.jpg?w=728)
Hwang Jae-gyun
By Nam Hyun-woo
There was more disappointment for Major League Baseball (MLB) fans here, after no MLB club posted a bid for Lotte Giants third baseman Hwang Jae-gyun.
The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) notified the Giants, Saturday. The 28-year-old player is currently undergoing a four-week basic military training and will return to the club.
The news comes after his team-mate outfielder Son Ah-seop suffered the same fate last month. Since the KBO prohibits a club from posting more than two players at the same time, Hwang got his chance on Nov. 26 after Son failed to get a bid. As widely anticipated, however, no big league clubs were interested in the player who posted less than solid numbers compared to those who recently entered the big league, such as the Minnesota Twins’ Park Byung-ho and the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Kang Jung-ho.
Hwang became the third Korean to see no clubs posting a bid for him. Former Doosan Bears reliever Jin Pil-joong was the first to draw no bid in 2002.
The Lotte Giants officials reportedly expressed their embarrassment, but palpable analysis is that optimistic factors outweighed in Hwang and Son’s botched MLB bid.
Hwang spent a solid season this year. He hit a .290 average, but launched a career high 26 home runs and 97 RBIs. With a .521 slugging percentage, he also posted 11 stolen bases.
The Giants remained in eighth place in the KBO League season and have made some big moves in the transfer carousel to sort out their problems. In the open market, the Giants signed pitchers Son Seung-lak and Yun Kil-hyoun to add more stability to its shaky bullpen, whose meltdowns were the culprits for the club’s disappointing 2015 season. Son has so far piled up 117 saves in his professional career and Yun has posted 78 holds and 28 saves so far.
That did not seem enough to fill the absence of Hwang and Son Ah-seop, but the two players failed to achieve their big league hope and will be spending at least one more year with the Giants. Local media say “the Giants caught two hares at once,” because the club justified itself by being cooperative in the two players MLB bids but eventually did not lose either of them.