Lotte Giants sign ex-MLB pitcher Vince Velasquez

Vince Velasquez, former major league pitcher, signs a contract with Lotte Giants to join the team, Thursday. Courtesy of Lotte Giants

The Lotte Giants announced Thursday they have signed former major league pitcher Vince Velasquez, as they try to make their first postseason trip in eight years.

Velasquez, a 33-year-old right-hander from California, will make $330,000 for the rest of this season.

He will join the Giants' rotation in place of Tucker Davidson, who will leave in the middle of his first season in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) after going 10-5 with a 3.65 ERA in 22 starts.

Davidson pitched six innings of one-run ball in a 5-1 win over the Kia Tigers on Wednesday. While his overall numbers are solid, the American left-hander did not pitch as well in June (7.71 ERA) and July (4.05 ERA) as he did in March-April (2.18 ERA) and May (2.70 ERA). Seeking more consistency from the top of their rotation, the Giants made their second foreign pitching change of the season.

In May, they replaced Charlie Barnes with Alec Gamboa, who has since been among the KBO's best starters, with a 7-3 record, 2.14 ERA and 75 strikeouts in 67 1/3 innings.

In Velasquez, the Giants are getting an experienced hurler with 144 big league starts to his credit.

He has a 38-51 record with a 4.88 ERA in the majors, with 822 strikeouts in 763 2/3 innings. His last major league outing came in 2023 with the Pittsburgh Pirates. After missing the 2024 season following an elbow surgery, Velasquez signed a minor league deal with the Cleveland Guardians in February this year. He had been pitching for their Triple-A affiliate, Columbus Clippers, before joining the Giants.

He went 5-4 with a 3.42 ERA in 81 2/3 innings with Columbus, with 95 strikeouts and 50 walks.

The Giants said Velasquez has a four-pitch mix, with four-seam fastball, slider, knuckle curve and changeup, and added they expect him to lean on his big league experience to play a key role in important games down the stretch.

Velasquez is scheduled to arrive in Korea on Friday.

Through Wednesday's action, the Giants ranked third among the 10 KBO clubs at 58-45-3 (wins-losses-ties), four games behind league-leading Hanwha Eagles and five games up on fourth-ranked SSG Landers.

The Giants have the third-worst ERA in the KBO at 4.47, though their pitchers have struck out the second-most batters with 873.