Dodgers sign top Korean pitching prospect Hyun-seok Jang

The Dodgers have agreed to terms with South Korean right-hander Hyun-seok Jang, his agency in South Korea announced, via Jee-ho Yoo of the Yonhap News Agency. 

It’s a $900K signing bonus for the 19-year-old Jang, who is forgoing the KBO amateur draft to pursue MLB opportunities. Yoo notes that Jang was widely expected to be the top pick in this year’s KBO draft. Daniel Kim first reported that the two parties were nearing an agreement.

The signing of Jang likely would not have been possible were it not for last week’s trade with the White Sox, which saw the Dodgers ship a pair of minor leaguers — Aldrin Batista and Maximo Martinez — to Chicago in exchange for additional space in their bonus pool. The Dodgers’ $4,144,000 pool for the 2023-24 period tied the Rangers for the smallest league-allotted pool in the league. And, as Baseball America’s Ben Badler outlined in detail this past spring, Los Angeles used the overwhelming majority of that pool (all but $1500 of it) on shortstop Joendry Vargas, outfielder Arnaldo Lantigua, right-hander Jesus Tillero, shortstop Daniel Mielcarek, catcher/outfielder Eduardo Quintero, shortstop Elias Medina and right-hander Samuel Sanchez.

The collective bargaining agreement, however, allows teams to trade international bonus pool space. Any team can acquire additional space totaling up to 60% of its initial league-allotted pool size. After their initial signing spree when the period opened, Badler noted that the White Sox still had more than $1M remaining in pool space. That set the stage for them to either sign additional talents down the line or, as they ultimately wound up doing, trade some of that remaining pool space.

Jang, listed at 6’2″ and 198 pounds, has allowed one run with a 42-to-14 K/BB ratio in 27 1/3 innings and was recently the only amateur named to the South Korean National Team, per Yoo. He’s already reached 97 mph on his fastball and will add a power arm — albeit one that is likely years from realistically making an MLB impact — to the lower levels of the Dodgers’ perennially strong farm system.