Pirates moving forward without plans for Kang
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Pirates are operating under the assumption that Jung Ho Kang will not be able to enter the country andplay in 2018.
“The fact that we went into last offseason, it was just about a year ago today that Jung Ho had the DUI in South Korea, thinking that we had a reasonably good chance of getting him in the country this past year, was on me,” Pirates president Frank Coonelly told fans in the Ask Pirates Management session Saturday at PiratesFest. “I thought we could get him in the country. The visa process was more complicated for him than we realized, sitting here today, and that was on me. I gave [general manager] Neal [Huntington] bad advice saying, ‘I think we can get Jung Ho into the country.’ “
Kang, the Pirates’ 30-year-old third baseman, crashed a rented BMW through a guard rail Dec. 2, 2016 in Seoul. The resulting DUI charge was his third that has become public since 2009. He received an eight-month suspended sentence in March and his appeal was deniedin May.
As a result of the DUI, Kang could not obtain an athlete work visa before the 2017 season. It is unknown exactly why Kang was denied a visa, but the Pirates told the Post-Gazette that Kang has a permanent inadmissibility, meaning he would need a waiver from the Departments of State and HomelandSecurity to enter the country.
Kang hit 21 home runs with a .354 on-base percentage in 2016, the second year of a four-year, $11 million contract he signed before 2015 after the Nexen Heroes of the Korea Baseball Organization posted him. He spent 2017 on the restricted list, collecting neither service time nor his $2.75million salary.
David Freese is no longer an everyday third baseman, and the Pirates can spell him with Josh Harrison or Sean Rodriguez. Harrison’s salary increases to $10 million this season, meaning he could be moved.
Max Moroff also can play third base, or the Pirates could look for a third baseman or utility infielder externally.
Rivero open to extension
Closer Felipe Rivero said his agent will meet with the Pirates Monday at the winter meetings. Rivero is eligible for arbitration, and said he would be open to the ideaof a multi-year contract.
“I want to stay here for a little bit,” Rivero said. “It’s a good city to stay. Clean, very good people, so that’sthe main reason.”
The 26-year-old lefty isn’t going anywhere — the Pirates have four more years of contractual control over him. But an extension that buys out some or all of his arbitration years would provide the Pirates with cost certainty. It also provides Rivero guaranteed money in case of injury.
McCutchen’s future
The first question Coonelly, Huntington and manager Clint Hurdle faced in Ask Pirates Management came from a young boy named Jack, who came out guns blazing.
“What is your mindset for trading Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole?”he asked, drawing applause.
“Jack, I’m not a coffee drinker,” Huntington joked, “but that just hit meas hard as a cup of coffee would.
“Our goal, our singular focus, is to put this club back in a position to win a World Series and then to be able to defend that. How do we do that? We do that by putting as many good players on the field as possible.
“In some cases that means resigning players. … In some cases it means letting them walk to free agency because we weren’t able to re-sign them and we felt that their impact was the biggest on us that year. And in some cases it means we’re going to have to make the hard decision to trade a good player for what we believe will be multiple good players or multiple years of that good player.”