KBO: Cuban pitcher Cy Young, MVP and Golden Glove re-signs in Korea with Doosan Bears

Coming from a dominant season that saw him win the Choi Dong-won Award from the Korea Baseball Organization (awarded annually to the best pitcher in the ten-team league), take home the league MVP award and set a new strikeout record in the KBO, the former Cuban starter of the Mariners and Orioles, Aríel Miranda, has re-signed with the Doosan Bears.

The deal will pay Miranda the equivalent of $ 1.9MM for a single season, allowing her to reevaluate her options the next offseason should she want to return to the United States:

In fact, after a season in which he posted 14-5 with a 2.33 ERA in 173 2/3 innings, the Cuban-born southpaw would have been a surefire way to generate some interest in major league clubs.

It is unclear what role the MLB lockout may have played in its decision-making, but its record of 225 Ks (2 more than the award’s namesake and KBO legend Choi Dong-won published in 1984) will have been turned into at least a few in the main office.

Still, even if Miranda had hoped to take a second stab at the majors, the $ 1.9MM he will win in 2022 represents a perfectly tidy consolation prize and leaves the door open for a return to MLB in his 34-year season. It’s also a significant increase from the $ 800,000 he made in 2021.

After defecting from his native Cuba in early 2015, Miranda signed a minor league contract with Baltimore in May and made his major league debut the following July, appearing in a game for the Orioles before heading to Seattle in a trade. that sent Wade Miley to Baltimore:

In 223 innings over parts of three seasons, Miranda posted a 4.72 ERA (5.55 FIP). While its K and BB rates (19.9% ​​and 9.1%, respectively) fell only on the wrong side of the league average, its 5.3% HR rate made it a bit of a fragile game. in limited action.

Although he consistently outperformed his peripherals (he had a 3.54 ERA against a 5.47 FIP in 56 innings with Seattle in 2016, for example), the Mariners let go of Miranda in 2018. That’s when he switched to Asian baseball, signing with Fukuoka. Nippon Professional Baseball’s SoftBank Hawks, less than two weeks later.

He remained in Japan for the 2019 season before signing with Chinatrust Brothers of the China Professional Baseball League based in Taiwan for the 2020 season and the Doosan Bears for 2021.

Whether or not Miranda can repeat her stellar 2021 remains to be seen, of course. Through 133 2/3 innings at Japan’s highest level, he posted a solid (if unspectacular) 3.36 ERA to go with 75 walks against just 98 Ks, a line similar to his 3.80 ERA in 156 1 / 3 innings in Taiwan, although there he struck out 170 while walking 60.

It may interest you: Former MLB Cuban pitcher has not received major league offers despite being MVP in Korea

After finishing runner-up in the 2021 Korean Series, the Doosan Bears certainly hope their prized Cuban southpaw can hold on to whatever he finds in 2021.

Rafael Martinez

I am a fan of the King of Sports, especially the Boston Red Sox in MLB and in general all of Mexican baseball. This profession has given me the opportunity to cover major events such as the Caribbean Series, the LMB All Star, LMP (uninterrupted since 2009), signings of important players. I had the chance to attend the 2013 World Classic in Arizona, USA, albeit as a fan. Apart from this beautiful sport, I love basketball, where I have also narrated games and even a friendly NBA 10 years ago, but I carry baseball in my veins. Graduated in Communication Sciences from the Autonomous University of Sinaloa (UAS) , from which I graduated in 2011. I was born in Mazatlán, Sinaloa and started in the world of sports journalism in 2004 in the newspaper El Sol de Mazatlán, where I was a baseball columnist and reporter at the same time. In January 2009 I came to El Debate as a journalist reporter and it was almost six years (in the first stage), until in November 2014 I emigrated to the radio providing my services in Línea Directa-Grupo RSN. My cycle there ended in July 2019 and within days, El Debate gave me another opportunity to work and opened the doors for me again. That is how I came to Al Bat, where I have been since 2019 as a web journalist.

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