The Lotte Giants of the Korea Baseball Organization announced they’ve signed left-handers Tucker Davidson and Charlie Barnes. Davidson receives an $850K salary with another $100K in incentives for his first season with the Giants. Barnes, who is headed into his fourth season with the club, receives $1.5MM (including incentives). The moves were relayed by Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net.
Davidson heads to a foreign league for the first time in his career. The 6’2″ southpaw made one appearance in the major leagues this year. He tossed 4 2/3 innings out of the bullpen for the Orioles, picking up the win in a blowout victory over the Twins in the season’s final weekend. Davidson spent the rest of the year with Baltimore’s Triple-A club in Norfolk. He started 17 of 32 outings and worked to a 3.89 earned run average across 115 2/3 frames.
Baltimore waived Davidson shortly after the season concluded. He elected minor league free agency. Rather than accept another minor league deal, he’ll parlay his solid Triple-A numbers into the KBO opportunity. The 28-year-old has a 5.76 ERA over 129 2/3 major league innings across four teams.
Barnes, who pitched for the Minnesota Twins in 2021, has been a reliable piece of the Lotte rotation for the last three years. He owns a 3.42 ERA in a little more than 500 KBO innings. Barnes turned in a 3.35 mark with 171 strikeouts over 150 2/3 innings this past season.
