Report: Korean third baseman Jae-Gyun Hwang asks to be posted this offseason

Third baseman Jae-Gyun Hwang has asked his club, the Lotte Giants of the Korea Baseball Organization, to make him available to MLB teams via the posting process this offseason, reports Yonhap. The two sides were set to continue talking in recent days and weeks.

“Any baseball player would dream of playing in the majors,” said Hwang to Yonhap. “And I have been working hard to realize that dream myself. I’ve already signed on with an American management company … I wanted to keep a low profile, but when articles on (teammate Ah-Seop Son) mentioned my name, I decided to go public, too.”

Hwang, 28, is a right-handed hitting third baseman who is known for his power and bat flips. Here is one of his better bat flips (skip to the 0:46 mark if you’re impatient):

Oh yeah, that’s the good stuff. Hwang spent time with three teams earlier in his career — there are ten teams in KBO now but there were only seven when Hwang first broke in — before finally finding a home with the Giants in 2010. Here are his career stats, via Baseball Reference:

Year	Age	AgeDif	Tm	G	PA	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
2007	19	-9.5	Hyundai	63	171	19	48	6	0	2	12	2	2	5	33	.300	.323	.375	.698
2008	20	-8.2	Woori	117	333	27	73	10	1	1	18	10	7	16	56	.239	.279	.288	.567
2009	21	-7.3	Woori	133	608	86	152	27	5	18	63	30	15	55	100	.284	.349	.453	.802
2010	22	-6.0	2 Teams	94	352	41	69	14	3	6	40	18	7	32	73	.225	.303	.350	.653
2011	23	-5.4	Lotte	117	458	62	115	18	4	12	68	12	6	40	78	.289	.360	.445	.805
2012	24	-4.3	Lotte	133	504	42	122	19	1	4	51	26	8	38	81	.272	.335	.346	.681
2013	25	-3.5	Lotte	128	559	70	134	29	3	7	56	22	11	49	78	.274	.350	.389	.738
2014	26	-2.9	Lotte	128	550	66	156	33	3	12	76	17	10	53	86	.321	.388	.475	.864
2015	27		Lotte	144	596	95	155	41	2	26	97	11	10	48	122	.290	.350	.521	.870
All Levels (9 Seasons)				1057	4131	508	1024	197	22	88	481	148	76	336	707	.280	.343	.417	.761

So far Hwang has only had one big power season, and he attributes his 2015 power spike to a new offseason training regime designed to add muscle. It’s worth noting his strikeout rate jumped from 15.0% from 2012-14 to 20.5% in 2015. That suggests some approach changes as well. It seems Hwang is swinging for the fences more often.

Inevitably, Hwang will be compared to Jung-Ho Kang, who was a smashing success for the Pirates this year. Kang was a consistent 20+ homer guy in Korea and he swatted 40 dingers in 2014. He struck out in 21.2% of his plate appearances in his final season in KBO, so his strikeout rate was in line with Hwang’s. Of course, he also hit way more homers too.

Our Sung-Min Kim tells me Hwang is considered a natural third baseman with a strong arm. He has played some shortstop in the past but works exclusively at the hot corner these days. Plenty of teams have scouted Hwang this year and the consensus is his plate discipline and approach are a bit worrisome, though that seems to be the case for all foreign position players.

The Giants do not have to post Hwang this offseason — MLB’s posting agreement with KBO is like the old posting system with NPB, meaning a blind bid and then a 30-day negotiating window — but they have incentive to do so because he will qualify for international free agency next offseason. They could either post him now and get gobs of money or lose him for nothing next year.

Kang is the first Korean position player to successfully transition to MLB through the posting system, and because of his success, I’m sure teams will spend some extra time evaluating Korean position players. There are 29 clubs right now who wish they had pursued Kang more aggressively. Hwang could benefit from Kang’s success simply because there figures to be more attention paid to position players in KBO now.

The best third baseman on the free agent market this offseason is David Freese, so yeah. Hwang figures to generate some interest. The Yankees have Chase Headley at third base, though they are said to be seeking a right-handed bat, so I suppose it’s not impossible they could trade Headley and bring in Hwang to play third. Unlikely? Oh sure. But not impossible. The Yankees will surely explore every option.

Given the lack of alternatives, I doubt the Yankees would have much trouble finding a taker for Headley, especially with only three years and $39M left on his contract. That’s nothing these days. I doubt the Yankees pursue Hwang this offseason, but he is an option that exists.

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