KBO's Twins sign ex-MLB pitcher Suarez

All News 09:20 January 05, 2021

By Yoo Jee-ho

SEOUL, Jan. 5 (Yonhap) -- The South Korean baseball club LG Twins announced Tuesday they've signed former major league pitcher Andrew Suarez.

The 28-year-old left-hander is coming to the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) on a one-year deal worth US$600,000. He'll make $400,000 in salary and take a $200,000 signing bonus.

In this Getty Images file photo from Sept. 17, 2018, Andrew Suarez, then of the San Francisco Giants, pitches against the San Diego Padres during the bottom of the first inning of a Major League Baseball regular season game at Petco Park in San Diego. (Yonhap)

Suarez made his major league debut with the San Francisco Giants in 2018, three years after being selected by the club in the second round of the annual amateur draft. In 56 games across three seasons, including 31 starts, Suarez went 7-15 with a 4.66 ERA. All seven wins came during his rookie season.

The Twins had been linked to Suarez for a few weeks before the deal was made official.

Suarez joins his former San Francisco teammate Casey Kelly in the Twins' rotation. Kelly signed a $1.4 million deal to return to the Twins for his third season.

Twins' general manager Cha Myeong-seok said he liked Suarez's fastball velocity and his ability to command all of his pitches.

According to Statcast, Suarez threw a four-seam fastball, slider, changeup and sinker in 2020. He averaged 91.9 miles per hour (147.9 kilometers per hour) with his four-seamer, which would have placed in the top five among KBO starting pitchers in average fastball velocity in 2020.

The Twins are now the seventh KBO club this offseason to fill up its foreign player slots, having earlier re-signed first baseman Roberto Ramos.

KBO clubs can each acquire up to three foreign players, with a maximum two pitchers. The NC Dinos, the Doosan Bears and the Kiwoom Heroes remain one player short.