The Hanwha Eagles completed the foreign pitcher composition by recruiting foreign pitcher Burch Smith.
Hanwha announced on the 18th that it had signed a contract with Smith for a total of 1 million dollars (100,000 down payment, 700,000 annual salary, and 200,000 dollars in incentives).
Smith, an American national born in 1990, is a right-handed pitcher who uses a variety of pitches such as sliders, curveballs, and changeups based on his tall (193cm) fastball with a maximum speed of 155km/h.
He made his major league debut as a member of San Diego in 2013, and through 2021, he played Kansas City, Milwaukee, San Francisco, and Oakland for five seasons, and his career performance was 102 games, throwing 191 innings, 5 wins, 11 losses, 184 strikeouts, and an average ERA of 6.03. In the minor leagues, he had an average ERA of 3.34 with 27 wins, 18 losses, and 412 strikeouts in 83 games (382⅓ innings) over 7 seasons.
In the 2022 season, he experienced Asian baseball by playing for the Japanese professional baseball Seibu Lions. In Seibu, he played 20 games (38⅓ innings) and recorded 1 win, 4 holds, 1 save, 37 strikeouts, and an ERA of 3.29.
General manager Son Hyuk said, “Smith is a fireballer-type starting resource, and he is a pitcher who can be entrusted with the first starting role. He has experience in Asian baseball, so he is expected to easily adapt to the KBO league.” He explained that he is a player who pitches stably regardless of the left and right batters by putting the pitch type and rapid control at the forefront.”메이저사이트
In addition, general manager Sohn said, “We recruited Smith because we needed a first-class player who can overwhelm opponent batters. Smith has a style of intimidating batters with pitches and is excellent at striking out. We expect Smith’s strengths like this to be of great help to the defense. “he added.
Smith is scheduled to join Spring Camp, Arizona, USA in February 2023.
As a result, Hanwha signed a new contract with Felix Pena on the 13th for a total of $850,000 (down payment of 100,000, annual salary of 550,000, and incentive of $200,000), and then recruited Smith to complete the composition of foreign pitchers.
However, Hanwha must find a new hitter while giving up renewing the contract with Mike Tuckman, who played the game before the 2022 season.