In this Getty Images file photo from Sept. 21, 2024, Patrick Wisdom of the Chicago Cubs is congratulated by teammates in the dugout after hitting a solo home run against the Washington Nationals during a Major League Baseball regular-season game at Wrigley Field in Chicago. (Yonhap)
SEOUL — The 2024 South Korean baseball champions Kia Tigers finalized their signing of former major league slugger Patrick Wisdom on Thursday.
The Tigers said Wisdom, a three-time 20-homer man for the Chicago Cubs, signed a one-year deal for US$1 million, the maximum amount for all first-year foreign players in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO). Wisdom will receive a guaranteed salary of $800,000 and a signing bonus of $200,000.
The Tigers were first rumored to have signed the 33-year-old American player about two weeks ago, but the deal had been pending a physical.
A Tigers official said Thursday that Wisdom passed a physical in the United States and another test in South Korea.
Wisdom was a first-round selection by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2012 draft and played his first big league game for them in 2018. After spending the 2019 season with the Texas Rangers, Wisdom signed with the Cubs as a free agent in August 2020.
He then enjoyed the best stretch of his big league career from 2021 to 2023, belting 28, 25 and 23 home runs in those years.
An all-or-nothing slugger, Wisdom batted just .214 in 337 games during those three years and struck out 447 times in 1,075 at-bats.
This year, Wisdom was limited to eight home runs in 75 games for the Cubs and was not tendered a new deal after the season.
In 2024, the Tigers led the regular season in team batting average (.301), on-base percentage (.368), and slugging percentage (.459). They also had the fewest strikeouts, 915 in 144 games.
Wisdom replaces Socrates Brito, a popular outfielder with the Tigers since 2022.
Wisdom has spent the majority of his major league career at third base but has also played first base, second base, left field, and right field.
The Tigers will likely use Wisdom at first base. In 2024, they cycled through multiple non-natural first basemen at that position, with outfielder Lee Woo-sung getting the bulk of time there. Their first basemen combined for 12 home runs, the second-lowest total in the league in 2024.
Lee is expected to return to the outfield following Brito’s departure, with Wisdom taking over at first base.
With the Wisdom acquisition, all 10 KBO clubs have completed their foreign player signings for the 2025 season. Teams can have three foreign players, with no more than two pitchers. The Tigers had earlier retained ace James Naile for his second season and newly acquired pitcher Adam Oller.
Nine clubs will have two pitchers and one position player, and the Kiwoom Heroes will be the lone exception. Pitcher Kenny Rosenberg will be joined by hitters Yasiel Puig and Ruben Cardenas.
The Heroes were also the stingiest team, spending a league-low 2.4 million won on their trio of foreign players. Cardenas will be the lowest-paid player from overseas at $600,000.
The KT Wiz spent the most money in that area, handing out a combined $4.3 million to outfielder Mel Rojas Jr. ($1.8 million) and pitchers William Cuevas ($1.5 million) and Enmanuel De Jesus ($1 million).
The Doosan Bears were the only team to replace all three foreign players from the 2024 season. No team brought all three back from this past campaign. (Yonhap)