Cleveland Indians' Yasiel Puig watches his three-run double off of Philadelphia Phillies relief pitcher Cole Irvin in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S., Sept, 2019. AP-Yonhap
In a bid to revive an anemic offense, the Kiwoom Heroes have taken an unusual step of carrying two foreign hitters on their roster for 2025.
The Seoul-based Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) club signed outfielders Yasiel Puig and Ruben Cardenas on Tuesday, along with pitcher Kenny Rosenberg, to complete their foreign player group for 2025. KBO clubs can each sign a maximum three foreign-born players, with no more than two pitchers. For years, teams have mostly gone with two starting pitchers and one position player.
The KBO first allowed teams to sign three foreign players in 2014, up from the previous limit of two, and the Heroes are now the first team under that arrangement to begin a season with two foreign hitters.
The KBO opened its doors to foreign players in 1998 and until the early 2000s, several teams employed multiple positions players. However, within the last 15 years, there have been only four previous instances where teams had two foreign position players at the same time.
In 2009, the Heroes had sluggers Cliff Brumbaugh and Doug Clark, but back then, teams could only have two foreign players each.
Both American players had strong seasons, with Brumbaugh leading the club with 27 homers and Clark driving in a team-high 90 runs.
Dan Black of the KT Wiz hits a ball into center field during his team's game against the NC Dinos at Suwon KT Wiz Park in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, June 18, 2019. Yonhap
In 2015, the expansion KT Wiz were granted one additional foreign player spot in their inaugural season. They started the campaign with three pitchers, Chris Oxspring, Phil Irwin and Andy Sisco, and one position player, Andy Marte. In May, though, the Wiz cut Sisco and signed infielder Dan Black to pair him with Marte.
Marte led his team with 89 RBIs and a .348 batting average, while finishing third with 20 homers. Black was also productive in his limited opportunities, hitting .333 with 12 homers, 32 RBIS and a .989 on-base plus slugging (OPS) in 54 games.
The duo even made a piece of franchise history. On June 28, 2015, they became the first pair of Wiz players to hit back-to-back home runs.
In July 2019, the Samsung Lions released slumping pitcher Justin Haley and signed outfielder Mac Williamson to put him alongside slugger Darin Ruf.
Ruf led the team with 22 homers and 101 RBIs in 133 games that year, while Williamson contributed four homers and 15 RBIs in 40 games.
The following year, the SK Wyverns (currently SSG Landers) also experimented with the two foreign-bat setup but suffered rotten injury luck.
Their mainstay, Jamie Romak, finished second on the team with 32 homers, 91 RBIs and a .945 OPS that season. Tyler White joined him in August but he suffered a broken right index finger after getting hit by a pitch in just his second game.
He returned in September, only to break his left hand when another errant pitch hit him in his seventh game back. White was ruled out for the remainder of the season, after batting only .136 with a home run and four RBIs in nine games.
The 2009 Heroes, 2015 Wiz, 2019 Lions and 2020 Wyverns all missed the postseason, a fate that the 2025 Heroes will try to avoid.
The Heroes finished in last place in 2024 with a record of 58-86. And by several measures, they also had the KBO's worst offense, as they ranked last in batting average (.264), on-base percentage (.337), slugging percentage (.380), runs (672), hits (1,326) and home runs (104).
In explaining their decision to sign two foreign hitters, the Heroes said they had concluded they needed to fix their offensive issues after having "several discussions" on the topic.
"Puig and Cardenas will add power to our lineup and give us a much different look. Their ability to hit for power and drive in runs will be massive," the team said. "If our Korean hitters can chip in, we will be a powerful offensive team." (Yonhap)