According to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports, the Pittsburgh Pirates won the bidding for Korean shortstop Jung-ho Kang.
The amount of the winning bid was reportedly around $5 million, and the Nexen Heroes of the Korea Baseball Organization have accepted it.
December 21
I spoke with a former MMO Writer who has since left our merry group to join a newspaper in Philadelphia covering the Phillies. Boo… Bah… Humbug…
During our conversation he went onto telling me not to be shocked if the Phillies are the mystery team who won the bidding for Korean shortstop Jung-ho Kang.
“I’m not saying we’re definitely the winning bidder, but we placed a very strong bid and there’s a lot of buzz regarding Kang around here lately.”
Damn… It prompted me to tweet this after I got off the phone:
I have a suspicious feeling that the team who submitted the winning bid on Jung-Ho Kang is the Philadelphia Phillies.
— Metsmerized – Joe D (@MetsmerizedJoeD) December 20, 2014
Then about 10 hours later, this article by Chris Cotillo of MLB Daily Dish went live saying:
“Though the winning team is still unknown, one industry source with knowledge of Korea predicted that the Phillies or Nationals could be the frontrunners at this point. Philadelphia has focused some scouting on Kang in the recent past, and has an opening in the middle infield after trading Jimmy Rollins to the Dodgers during the Winter Meetings.”
Anyway, we’ll see where this goes. Hopefully we learn the identity of this mystery team in short order. But don’t be surprised if it’s the Phillies. If there’s a ballpark that can better translate those 39 home runs from Korea to the U.S. it’s certainly Citizens Bank Park.
