Touching Base: A new monthly column highlighting baseball happenings around the world

Supporters of the Doosan Bears react during a match between Hanwha Eagles and Doosan Bears on the first day of the 2022 Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) season at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on April 2, 2022. (Photo by ANTHONY WALLACE / AFP) (Photo by ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP via Getty Images)
By Nick Groke
Nov 22, 2022

Touching Base is a monthly column highlighting the exciting happenings in baseball beyond the borders of MLB — from international leagues to amateur teams and everything in between. Our inaugural column will focus primarily on Asia, where Major League Baseball was primed to kick off its World Tour series, and the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) and Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) league in Japan wrapped their seasons earlier this month.

Major League Baseball’s grand World Tour kicked off with a fizzle when the league abruptly canceled its Korea Series, a four-game exhibition that was scheduled to start earlier this month in the port city of Busan, South Korea, but instead ended up in the can.

Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch and at least seven major leaguers, including Ha-Seong Kim, Darin Ruf, Salvador Perez, Patrick Wisdom, Steven Kwan and Anthony Santander, were expected to travel for a “historic series” against a team of stars from the Korea Baseball Organization.

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MLB touted that the tour would be the first time major-league players would be traveling to the country in 100 years, since a team that included Hall of Famers Casey Stengel, Waite Hoyt and Herb Pennock barnstormed through Korea, Japan and China. Instead, Hinch and his team were grounded when MLB abruptly announced the cancellation of the event — set to be held from Nov. 11-15 in Busan and Seoul — on Oct. 28, the day Game 1 of the World Series was held. The league cited “contractual issues with the event promoter” as the reason why.

“We are sorry that we weren’t able to make the event happen for our fans in Korea,” Jim Small, MLB’s executive vice president of international, said in a statement. “Regrettably we are at a point where we have to cancel the upcoming tour because the event is unable to meet the high quality our Korean fans deserve.”

In a statement, KBO officials said they were “perplexed” by the cancellation.

“Even though we had expected difficulties in assembling our team because of league schedules and other issues, we decided to cooperate with MLB to help globalize the game of baseball,” the KBO said, according to the Associated Press. “But the event was canceled in the end and we regret the confusion and inconvenience it has caused our fans.”

As of now, the league has no plans to reschedule another Korean series — or any international series — this winter. The next leg of MLB’s World Tour will come in March, when the World Baseball Classic starts in Taichung, Taiwan, Tokyo, Miami and Phoenix. After that, the Padres and Giants will play a two-game series in Mexico City during the regular season on April 29-30, and the Cubs and Cardinals will play a pair in London on June 24-25.

MLB’s intent with these series was to gain a foothold with curious international audiences. But because the idea fell outside the normal course of baseball business, the league had to lobby players to its plan. When they negotiated a new collective bargaining agreement in March, the league and players agreed to play in other countries, including South Korea and Taiwan this winter.

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The last time MLB held a regular season game outside the U.S. or Canada came in 2019, when the Yankees and Red Sox drew nearly 60,000 fans each to a pair of games in London. Earlier that same year, the league held games in Monterrey, Mexico (Cardinals-Reds and Astros–Angels) and Tokyo (Mariners-A’s). And in 2014, the Dodgers and Diamondbacks opened their seasons early in Sydney, Australia.

The rest of the World Tour plan includes a series after next season somewhere in Latin America, then games in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic during spring training in 2024 and an Opening Day game somewhere in Asia. And then finally, in 2025 and ’26, September games in San Juan. That’s the idea, anyway. For now, Korea will have to wait.

Meanwhile, in South Korea

The last time MLB fans likely saw Shin-Soo Choo, the longtime big-leaguer was Kirk Gibson-ing his way on base after a memorable and gutsy bunt before bowing out of the majors in 2020.

Choo played 16 years in MLB, including a long stint in Cleveland between 2006-12, and was an All-Star in 2018 with Texas. But he carried on, returning home to South Korea in 2021 to play with SSG Landers. A relatively young team in KBO, the Landers joined the league in 2000 as SK Wyverns, before renaming themselves last year. In that short time, they’ve won four KBO titles, including a back-to-back run in 2007-08. Diamondbacks right-hander Merrill Kelly boosted his career pitching for the Wyverns for four seasons through 2018 before returning to MLB.

When Choo returned to South Korea and signed with Wyverns last year, his one-year, $2.4 million contract was the richest in KBO history. But his team finished middle of the pack, just two games above .500.

With Choo lighting the way again this season, the Landers recorded a historic first in the 40-year-old KBO, going wire-to-wire to win a championship. The Landers led the league on Day 1 (and featured an incredible Opening Day pitch to boot). And they led the league after Game 6 of the title series, when they finally set aside the Kiwoom Heroes, home to former MLB All-Star Yasiel Puig.

 

Venezuelan Wilmer Font, who played for the Blue Jays in 2019-20, earned a win for the Landers in Game 6. American Eric Jokisch (ex-Cubs) took the loss in relief of Tyler Eppler (a sixth-round pick of the Pirates in 2014).

Puig’s time in KBO

Puig, on a one-year, $1 million contract with Kiwoom, was playing on a sort of revival mission after he failed to find a job in MLB. He last played in Cleveland in 2019 and was set to sign as a free agent with Atlanta before a positive COVID-19 test scuttled the deal.

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In his first KBO season, Puig hit 21 home runs (ninth-most in the league), with an .841 OPS over 547 plate appearances. But before his Heroes bowed out of the final, Puig talked about trying to find himself.

Playing in Korea “fed my soul,” Puig said on Instagram. “You have given me renewed life and a new understanding of myself.”

Puig, 31, posted a Twitter thread earlier this month about his struggle with mental health. He said he was receiving “treatments” with the help of his agent, acknowledging that he hurt himself “by getting in my own way” and saying there is “a lot more work to do but now I know help is there for me.”

“I have constantly stated that Yasiel Puig’s missed diagnosis (of ADHD) during his time in MLB was the root of many of his issues,” Puig’s agent, Lissette Carnet, said in a statement last week. “As further proof, after receiving the proper therapies starting this spring in Korea, he proceeded to have an outstanding season in KBO, both on and off the field.”

Last week, Puig pleaded guilty to a felony charge of lying to investigators, the U.S. Department of Justice said last Monday, during an interview as a witness to an illegal gambling operation. According to prosecutors, Puig falsely told federal investigators that he only knew the third party from baseball and not through gambling, while he had actually discussed sports betting with that third party hundreds of times via phone and text message.

Puig has had a number of legal issues in the past. He settled in a sexual assault lawsuit last year and reportedly settled two other lawsuits in 2017, though he denied all of those allegations.

It’s a go on Sho

Angels star Shohei Ohtani said last week that he will don the dotted pinstripes of Japan to play for his home country in the WBC. Japan will play its opening round at the Tokyo Dome, in a pool with Korea, Australia, China and the Czech Republic, starting on March 9.

Ohtani once memorably hit a ball through the roof of the Tokyo Dome, which caused momentary confusion throughout the stadium because nobody had ever seen that before.

After five seasons in the states, the 2021 AL MVP’s return to Japan will certainly come with celebration. Ohtani hasn’t played an official game there since he left the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters to sign with the Angels.

But will he play both ways? Ohtani will surely hit for Japan, but he’s also hinted at the possibility of pitching as a closer, too. Over the past two years, Ohtani has flipped the conventional wisdom of a two-way player, proving that it’s not only possible but valuable. He’s a unicorn, doing something unseen since Babe Ruth.

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But he has not yet pitched in relief for the Angels. What a slacker.

Ohtani played for Japan’s manager, Hideki Kuriyama, with the Nippon Ham Fighters before he moved to MLB, so there’s enough familiarity between the two to capitalize on the possibility. It will be Ohtani’s first appearance in the WBC. He was set to play in 2017 before an ankle injury kept him out.

Japan has not yet announced a roster for the WBC, but their pool of potential players could put them among the favorites to win. Pitchers Kenta Maeda (Minnesota Twins), Yu Darvish (San Diego Padres), Yusei Kikuchi (Toronto Blue Jays) and Masahiro Tanaka (ex-Yankees) would qualify if they choose to play, and the Chicago Cubs’ Seiya Suzuki could join Ohtani in the outfield.

More championship updates

In Japan, the Orix Buffaloes took down the Tokyo Yakult Swallows in seven games to win the NPB championship, after holding off a four-run rally in the eighth inning.

In Taiwan, CTBC Brothers swept the Rakuten Monkeys in four games in the Taiwan Series CPBL championship. Brothers finally snapped the run of the Uni-Lions, who had won the previous two CPBL titles. Ex-Cardinals catcher Francisco Peña, now playing with the Brothers, gave a heartfelt speech to their fans in Taichung City while they celebrated on the field.

Coaching news

Yadier Molina didn’t even wait through the winter before making his presence felt again. The Cardinals’ 10-time MLB All-Star and two-time World Series champ officially retired after the World Series ended. Now he’s managing in the Venezuelan Winter League for Navegantes del Magallanes, the league’s defending champs. In his long career, Molina never played in Venezuela, but he was recruited to manage by ex-major leaguers José Martínez and Pablo Sandoval.

And he already earned his first ejection.

Molina played a memorable final season with the Cardinals, catching another round with fellow graybeard Adam Wainwright. It didn’t take him long to quickly move into a second career.

“I’ve managed for 19 years in the big leagues,” Molina told The New York Times. “Baseball is baseball.”

If anybody else had said that, it would have sounded self-aggrandizing. But Molina actually earned it. He will also manage Puerto Rico in the WBC this spring.

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And Kaz Matsui, ex-Mets and Astros infielder who played second base for the Rockies in a memorable run to the 2007 World Series, was named the manager of the Saitama Seibu Lions in NPB.

Highlight reel

Masataka Yoshida, the Orix Buffaloes’ best hitter, can slug it:

Ichiro Suzuki is still trying to make a go of it:

ICYMI, Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Brandon Marsh gave a shoutout to some old friends in a post-game interview during this year’s World Series:

Postings

Masataka Yoshida, the aforementioned NPB star outfielder, remains the most coveted player potentially moving to MLB next season. The Orix Buffaloes have not yet posted his availability as a signable free agent and they have until Dec. 5 to figure it out. But stateside teams already seem to be lining up.

Yoshida, 29, is a pure hitter. Over the past two seasons for Orix, over 975 plate appearances, he has walked more than twice as often as he’s struck out (141 walks to 68 Ks). And he hit 42 homers over that stretch.

The Mariners and Yankees, according to reports, may have interest in Yoshida. But a left-handed-swinging slugger with plate discipline should catch the eye of all 30 MLB teams.

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On the other hand, Masahiro Tanaka, the 34-year-old right-hander who pitched seven successful seasons with the Yankees, said he will stay in Japan with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles next year and not return to MLB.

Kodai Senga, 29, doesn’t need to post for MLB. The former Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks right-hander is a free-and-clear free agent. And he’s already among the top free agents this winter, according to The Athletic’s Jim Bowden, with a slew of teams seemingly a solid fit, including the Angels, Dodgers and Giants. And because teams don’t have to pay a posting fee to sign him, he is perhaps more valuable in free agency than a pitcher who, say, has a qualifying offer attached.

Also, Shintaro Fujinami, a 28-year-old right-hander, was approved for a move to MLB by his team, the Hanshin Tigers. He, too, will draw significant interest.

How do you say it?

In South Korea, a bat flip is 빠던 or ppa-dun – a portmanteau that combines the first sounds in the Korean words for “bat” and “throw.”

The ppa-duns can be memorable. Here’s the Lotte Giants’ Jung Hoon bat-flipping from one knee in August. The entire thing is a work of art.

Closing notes

Yoenis Céspedes, 37, is 12 games into a comeback attempt for Águilas Cibaeñas of the Dominican Winter League. The two-time Home Run Derby champ who once sent Queens into an October tizzy, is 9-for-44 with a pair of home runs.

And Baseball Canada said it will add women’s baseball to the 2025 Canada Games, hoping to boost a slow-growing movement. Women’s baseball was part of the 2015 Pan-American Games and a 12-team Women’s Baseball World Cup was contested in 2016 in South Korea. But since then, the World Baseball Softball Confederation, the governing body of the Olympic sport, has been focused on softball.

Have anything you’d like to see covered in future columns? Let us know in the comments below.

(Top photo: Anthony Wallace / AFP via Getty Images)

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