Hanwha Eagles recruited right-hander Birch Smith (30) as a new foreign pitcher.

Hanwha announced on the 18th that it had signed a contract with Smith for up to $1 million, including a down payment of $100,000, an annual salary of $700,000, and an incentive of $200,000. 

Smith, an American national born in 1990, is a right-handed pitcher who uses a variety of pitches such as slider, curveball, and changeup based on his 193cm tall fastball with a maximum speed of 155km/h. 

He made his major league debut with San Diego in 2013 and played for the Kansas City Royals, Milwaukee Brewers, San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics until 2021. His career performance in his five major league seasons was 5 wins, 11 losses in 102 games (191 innings) with a 6.03 earned run average and 184 strikeouts. 

In the US Minor League, he played 7 seasons and recorded 27 wins and 18 losses in 83 games (382⅓ innings) with an ERA of 3.34 and 412 strikeouts. 

He also experienced Asian 메이저사이트 baseball by playing for Seibu, a Japanese professional baseball, this year. In Seibu, he had 20 games (38⅓ innings), 1 win, 1 save, 4 holds, an average ERA of 3.29 and 37 strikeouts.

General Manager Son Hyuk said, “Smith is a fireballer-type starting resource and can be assigned the first starting role. He has experience in Asian baseball, so it is expected that he will be able to adapt to the KBO league easily.” He explained that he is a player who pitches stably regardless of left and right batters with various pitches and speed control.”

Next, general manager Son Hyuk said, “We recruited Smith because we needed a first-class player who could overwhelm opponent hitters. Smith has a style of attacking batters with pitches and has excellent strikeout skills. We expect Smith’s strengths like this to be of great help to the defense. “he said.

Smith is scheduled to join Spring Camp, Arizona, USA in February 2023.

After renewing the contract with pitcher Felix Pena, who has been active since July of this year, Hanwha, which recruited Smith, plans to finish the contract for the remaining single foreign hitter as soon as possible.