On temporary KBO deal, Heroes pitcher Wells trying to stay present

Kiwoom Heroes starter Lachlan Wells walks off the mound after completing an inning against the Kia Tigers during a Korea Baseball Organization regular-season game at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, June 25. Courtesy of Kiwoom Heroes

Earlier in June, Australian pitcher Lachlan Wells pounced on an opportunity to pitch in Korea for the first time, thinking it would be "a pretty cool experience," even though he only signed a temporary deal.

Wells' future with the Kiwoom Heroes of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) remains uncertain, beyond the six weeks he's supposed to be around for as an injury replacement for fellow left-hander Kenny Rosenberg.

And Wells, 28, is determined to stay in the present, no matter how his KBO stint plays out.

In 2024, the KBO began allowing teams to sign new foreign players on short-term contracts to fill in for those sidelined for at least six weeks. Teams have made the use of this rule with a varying degree of success, none more successful than the Hanwha Eagles. They hit a jackpot last summer with right-hander Ryan Weiss, who pitched so well in place of Ricardo Sanchez that the Eagles ended up cutting Sanchez and converted Weiss' initial deal into a full contract. Weiss then returned for his second season here in 2025.

Wells may just be given an opportunity to grab a rotation spot for the rest of this season, with Rosenberg's recovery from a hip injury not going as well as the Heroes had hoped, according to manager Hong Won-ki.

In an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Thursday, a day after making his KBO debut, Wells said he hadn't begun looking that far down the road and he wasn't about to start doing so.

"Just going out there and concentrating on what I can control and doing what I can to put the team in a spot to win games," he said at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul. "Just continue focusing on what I can control and if anything happens, it happens."

Up against the defending champions Kia Tigers on Wednesday, Wells went three innings and allowed a run on three hits. He struck out four and didn't walk anyone, while tossing 53 pitches.

Kiwoom Heroes starter Lachlan Wells pitches against the Kia Tigers during a Korea Baseball Organization regular-season game at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, June 25. Courtesy of the Heroes

Wells is slowly building back up to the normal starter's workload, for this was his first competitive game in about four months. His season for the Adelaide Giants in the Australian Baseball League ended in late January, and he pitched for the Australian national team in an exhibition series against the Eagles in mid-February in Melbourne.

Wells retired the first eight batters he faced Wednesday before he admittedly "started to run out of steam there in the third inning." He allowed consecutive two-out doubles and then an infield single, but somehow escaped the inning with just one Tigers run on the board.

"I felt pretty good out there. I was pretty amped up and excited, had the adrenaline going," he said. "The first couple innings were a bit of a blur and then it kind of hit me a little bit in the third. It was good to get out of that one with minimal damage."

Manager Hong told reporters Thursday there were "a lot of positive things" he saw in the first two innings from Wells, especially his command and spin rates, but added it was too early to make a full assessment on the new pitcher. Hong plans to send Wells back on the mound Sunday on three days' rest, hoping to accelerate his ramping-up process.

"The KBO is a good league," Wells said. "It's competitive and the hitters are going to be tough out."

Wells pitched in front of a sellout crowd of 16,000 at the dome Wednesday. With the league on pace to shatter its single-season attendance record of 10.88 million set just last year and a few ballparks with over 20,000 seats outside Seoul, Wells is sure to toe the rubber before even bigger crowds on the road at some point.

Wells, who reached as high as Double-A in the U.S. minor leagues in 2024, said it was only after his night ended that he'd realized how raucous the crowd was Wednesday night.

"I was pretty locked in and I didn't really hear the noise too much," he said. "Then once I stopped pitching and came back out after taking my cleats off, that's when I heard how loud it can get. So it was a pretty cool experience, one that I'm not going to forget."