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Baltimore officially signs Kim Hyun-soo

December 23, 2015

Kim Hyun-soo, left, poses with Orioles General Manager Dan Duquette after the signing was formally announced. (Courtesy of Baltimore Orioles)

SEOUL (Yonhap) — A decade after going undrafted out of high school in South Korea, outfielder Kim Hyun-soo has signed his first major league contract.

One happy Kim Hyun-soo raises his thumbs up after visiting the Orioles park at Camden Yard. (Courtesy of Baltimore Orioles)

The Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday announced their signing of Kim to a two-year contract worth $7 million. The two sides had agreed to the terms of the deal last Wednesday, pending a physical.

The 27-year-old All-Star with the Doosan Bears in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) is the second South Korean to sign with a Major League Baseball (MLB) club this offseason. Earlier this month, former Nexen Heroes first baseman Park Byung-ho joined the Minnesota Twins.

Kim is the first player to jump from the KBO to MLB via free agency. Three players before him — Los Angeles Dodgers’ left-hander Ryu Hyun-jin, Pittsburgh Pirates’ infielder Kang Jung-ho and Park of the Twins — went through posting.

Kim, a durable left fielder who bats left and throws right, is expected to address the Orioles’ pressing needs for a corner outfielder and a left-handed bat.

Called “Hitting Machine” in South Korea, Kim is a career .318 hitter in the KBO, the second-highest batting average among all active players with at least 3,000 plate appearances. But what separates Kim is his discipline at the plate. He just does not swing at many bad pitches as his career on-base percentage of .406 shows.

He has 597 walks against 501 strikeouts in 1,131 career games.

Kim made his KBO debut with the Bears as an undrafted walk-on in 2006, playing in just one game. He appeared in 99 games the following season, batting .273 with five home runs, and then took the league by storm by winning the batting title in 2008 — his age-20 season — with a .357 average.

He matched the .357 average in 2009, while raising his home run total from nine to 23. Between 2008 and 2015, Kim hit below .300 only once — .291 in 2012 — and his strikeouts exceeded his walk totals in just two out of those eight seasons.

In 2015, Kim, listed by the KBO at 188 centimeters and 100 kilograms (6-foot-2 and 220 pounds), posted his best power numbers with 28 home runs and 121 RBIs, along with a robust .326/.438/.541 line. He ranked among the top 10 in the Triple Crown categories, plus walks, on-base percentage, on-base-plus-slugging percentage, runs scored, hits, total bases and multi-hit games. He drew 101 walks and struck out 63 times in 630 plate appearances.

The improving outfielder, who can also fill in at first base, led all KBO left fielders in defensive innings played (2,633), putouts (590) and assists (21) over the past three seasons. He has missed only 12 games in that stretch.

Kim is the latest Asian star snatched up by Dan Duquette, the Orioles’ executive vice president of baseball operations.

As the general manager for the Boston Red Sox from 1994 to 2002, Duquette signed three South Korean pitchers — Kim Sun-woo, Cho Jin-ho and Lee Sang-hoon — and they all reached the majors during his tenure.

Before Kim, the Orioles had signed four South Korean players, including former KBO MVP-winning pitcher Yoon Suk-min. Yoon spent one year in the O’s minor league and never pitched in the majors.

In 2011, a KBO All-Star pitcher Chong Tae-hyon came close to joining the Orioles but failed a physical. In 2012, the Orioles breached an agreement between the KBO and MLB when they signed underage high school pitcher Kim Seong-min. The Orioles also failed to tender a status check, prompting Duquette to apologize to South Korean officials.

The O’s won 96 games to take the American League East crown last year but slipped to third place with 81 wins in 2015, after getting pushed around by the Toronto Blue Jays and the New York Yankees in the oft-competitive division.