Kang’s saga continues as sentence upheld
Any hopes the Pirates harbored regarding Jung Ho Kang’s possible reinstatement from the restricted list took another hit Thursday when a South Korean court upheld a suspended prison sentence stemming from Kang’s December drunkendriving arrest, his third DUI since2009.
Kang had sought to lower the punishment — an eightmonth sentence suspended that Kang would not serve unless arrested for DUI again in the next two years — to a fine in an appeals hearing. The court determined Thursday the suspended prison sentencewas “rational.”
In a statement, Pirates president Frank Coonelly said: “It is premature to comment on the impact, if any, it will have on his ability to secure permission to travel to the United States under a work visa. We will continue towork with Jung Ho and his representatives as he works throughthat process.”
It is not clear whether a lesser punishment alone would have persuaded the United States government to issue Kang a visa, since his lawyers have called the suspended prison term issued in Marcha potential “death sentence”to his baseball career.
Kang was arrested Dec. 2 in Seoul, South Korea, after driving a rented BMW into a guardrail and fleeing the scene of the crash. Police said Kang’s blood alcohol level at the time of the crash would have been 0.08, above the country’s0.05 legal limit.
ThePirates signed Kang to a four-year, $11 million contract in 2015. The club has since said it was unaware of his previous DUIs at the time of his signing. Kang batted .273 with an .838 OPS and 36 home runs in two seasons, both shortened by a knee injuryin September 2015.
Bell bats fourth
One of the greatest freedoms in this country, managerClint Hurdle likes to say, isthe freedom to change your mind.
Two days after declaring Josh Bell unprepared to bat cleanup, Hurdle wrote Bell into the fourth spot in the lineup Thursday for a series finale against Washington. The difference, Hurdle said, is Gregory Polanco, the regular cleanup hitter, went on the disabled list and David Freese, who batted fourth Tuesday and Wednesday, hadThursday off.
Bell walked and hit his ninth home run, his fourth in six games. The homer, he said, gave him a little confidence in the cleanup role. Bell, who primarily batted third in the minors, said he expects pitchers will approach him a little differently asthe cleanup hitter.
“I feel like that comes with it,” he said. “But at the same time it also comes with the situation you’re put in. I’ve been swinging the bat all right of late, so I feel like guys are going to approach me differentlyanyway.”
Buried treasure
Outfielder Danny Ortiz recorded his first major league hit with a single. … Coonelly is a member of Baseball’s restructured competition committee. The committee will be “charged with studying all aspects of the game and advising the [c]ommissioner and [c]lub [o]wners on onfield matters,” according to a league statement.