Lotte Giants' Son Ah-seop posted for MLB

Son Ah-seop

By Nam Hyun-woo

Lotte Giants’ Son Ah-seop took his first step toward the Major League, Monday, after his team asked the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) to post the 27-year-old outfielder.

Along with Son, the Giants’ Hwang Jae-gyun announced his wish to play in Major League Baseball (MLB). As the KBO is not permitting the team to post both Hwang and Son simultaneously, the club decided to give Son, who recorded more solid numbers this year, the first chance at being posted, and will decide on Hwang depending on the result of Son’s posting.

The Giants will be offered a blind bid on Son on Nov. 21 and will be given five days to accept it. Then the MLB club concerned and Son will have 30 days to negotiate a contract.

Son, who was exempted from Korea’s mandatory military service by winning the 2014 Incheon Asian Games gold medal, will be conscripted for four weeks of basic military training on Nov. 23.

Amid Son’s posting, American media is also paying attention to Son, who recorded a .317 batting average with a .406 on-base percentage and .472 slugging this year, as well as 13 home runs and 54 RBIs.

NBC Sports wrote that “something in the $5-6 million range sounds right,” adding that “Son doesn’t have the gaudy KBO numbers” as Park Byung-ho, who fetched a $12.85 million bid from the Minnesota Twins for his Nexen Heroes last week, but “should do pretty well for himself.”

CBS Sports also reported that the Baltimore Orioles are also interested in Son, saying “Son doesn't have big power like Park, but he appears to have other skills that would fit in nicely with what the Orioles need.”

Domestic expectations over Son’s move seem varied. As the Heroes hit the bonanza by sending shortstop Kang Jung-ho to the Pittsburgh Pirates and drawing the second highest bid for an Asian hitter by posting Park, the baseball community here sees sending talent through the posting system as one of the solid ways of garnering cash.

However, should the amount on Son not be as high as the Giants expect it to be, some anticipate that the Giants will not let Son leave the KBO as the SK Wyverns and the KIA Tigers did for their starters Kim Kwang-hyun and Yang-Hyeon-jong last year, respectively.