South Korean baseball club Samsung Lions on Tuesday announced their acquisition of former big league pitcher Justin Haley.
The Korea Baseball Organization team said Haley has agreed to a one-year deal worth US$550,000. He got a $100,000 signing bonus and can make an additional $250,000 in incentives.
Starting this offseason, the KBO put in a salary cap of $1 million on first-year foreign players.
In this UPI file photo from June 29, 2018, Justin Haley, then with the Boston Red Sox, throws a pitch against the New York Yankees in the bottom of the seventh inning of a Major League Baseball regular season game at Yankee Stadium in New York. Haley will pitch for the Samsung Lions in the Korea Baseball Organization in 2019. (Yonhap)
The 27-year-old right-hander has appeared in 14 major league games, including four this year with the Boston Red Sox. He had a 5.61 ERA in those 14 games, without a win-loss record.
In 154 career minor league games, including 141 starts, Haley has gone 43-54 with a 3.42 ERA.
Haley joins a staff that finished fifth among 10 clubs with a 5.19 ERA in 2018.
KBO teams are allowed to sign up to two foreign players, and the pair that the Lions had in 2018 both struggled. Tim Adleman went 8-12 with a 5.05 ERA, and Lisalverto Bonilla was 7-10 with a
5.30 ERA. Both enjoyed a strong July, but their stretches of effective starts were few and far between.
The Lions said Haley has the makeup of a good starting pitcher, thanks to his ability to command many different pitches and his durability.
"His pitches have good vertical movements, and he's going to miss a lot of bats," the team said. "He has an outstanding release point and extension too." (Yonhap)
