It's no longer difficult to find players from the KBO League in the Major League. The player who gained the most anticipation this season is Eric Peddy (31, St. Louis Cardinals), who dominated the domestic stage in the 2023 season. Peddy falters after the trade, but he proves that he certainly wasn't at the level where he would come to the KBO.스포츠토토

Apart from Peddy, the two most recognizable players are coincidentally from the Samsung Lions. They are Ben Lively (Claveland Guardians) and Albert Suarez (Baltimore Orioles). Lively wore blue uniforms from 2019 to 2021, and Suarez wore them in 2022 and 2023.

Lively showed sluggish performance even after returning to the U.S., but suddenly appeared this season. On the other hand, Suarez had a strong image as a player whose luck is not consistent with his team's victory at Samsung. His ball power was good at Samsung, too. Prior to that, he experienced the Asian Baseball Organization in advance with the Yakult Swallows in the Japanese professional baseball league from 2019 to 2021.

Believing that Suarez had a meaningful five-year career in Asia, the Baltimore Orioles signed a minor contract. With his unexpected performance, Suarez became an indispensable pitcher. He has eight wins, five losses and an earned run average of 3.39 in 29 games this season. He has become the winning pitcher for the first time in eight years since 2016 when he was playing for the San Francisco Giants. He has 10 wins for the first time in his career.

The Bleacher Report revealed the hidden gems of 30 Major League teams on Monday (Korea time). Baltimore is definitely Suarez. "He played in the Japanese and KBO leagues for the past five years. He signed a minor contract with Baltimore, but he has emerged as one of the best teams in the Major League."

In fact, Suarez is a key starting pitcher along with the aces Corbin Burns, Dean Creamer, and Grayson Rodriguez. He played 119.1 innings, the second largest number in his team, after Burns with 175.1 innings. Considering that he had an affair with the bullpen for a while during the season, Suarez has been reliable as a starter this year.

According to Statcast, the average four-seam fastball is 94.8 miles. The hit rate is 0.274, which is unexpectedly high. On the other hand, the cutter (0.253), the change-up (0.250), and the curve (0.179) are stable. Still, they are worth everything. They are four-seam, four-seam, three-cutter and curve, and one-change-up.

Baltimore also would not have expected a pitcher with a minor contract to perform like this. It seems that no matter which team it is, it will be possible to sign a Major League contract next year. Without Suarez's performance, Baltimore might not have been able to compete with the New York Yankees for No. 1 ranking in the American League East. After all, the team has recently become three games apart from the Yankees. However, Baltimore ranks No. 1 in the American League wild card. Chances are high that it will advance to the postseason.

Suarez has yet to play in the postseason in the Major League. If he performs well in the postseason, his value is expected to increase further this winter. Although his younger brother Robert Suarez (San Diego Padres) is a popular closing pitcher, he deserves to raise his head this season.