“A player with more strengths after elbow surgery”
The Hanwha Eagles found a replacement for Birch Smith. Previously, on the 19th, Hanwha announced a waiver for Smith, saying, “We decided that it would not be easy for Smith to return after complaining of shoulder pain.”
On the 20th, it was announced that “We signed a contract with a new foreign pitcher, left-hander Ricardo Sanchez, for an annual salary of 400,000 dollars (approximately 500 million won).”
Sanchez is a 26-year-old left-handed pitcher born in 1997 from Venezuela.
He uses up to 151km/h and 140km/h fastballs and two-seams, as well as curves, sliders, and changeups.
Hanwha said, “The club expects to be able to digest stable innings through Sanchez’s aggressive pitching pattern.”
Sanchez appeared in 140 minor league games (133 starts) and posted a 4.61 ERA with 32 wins, 52 losses, and 581 strikeouts in 640.1 innings.
In particular, in 2019, he recorded 8 wins, 12 losses, 135 strikeouts, and an earned run average of 4.44 in 27 appearances and 146 innings.
However, according to MILB, the minor league site of the US MLB, Sanchez is known to have a history of undergoing Tommy John surgery (elbow ligament surgery) during the 2020 season, the first year of his debut. He has not played in 2021 as he is focusing on his rehabilitation.
After returning to Triple A in 2022, he recorded an average ERA of 4.95 in 26 games, 116.1 innings, 7 wins and 5 losses.
On the one hand, Sanchez appears to be underperforming after an elbow injury. However, local evaluations in the US were different. 메이저사이트
MLB Traderumers, who is good at evaluating major league players, commented on Sanchez, “After returning from injury, he is not performing well. However, he is still a young player with complete pitching ability.”
He continued, “The GO/AO (groundball induction rate, the higher the value, the better the groundball ability) in 2019, when he ran the most, and in 2022, after returning from injury, increased from 0.48 to 1.34.” If you do, you will get good results.”
Meanwhile, Hanwha said, “Sanchez plans to return to Korea and join the team in April as soon as administrative procedures are completed.”