CPBL Foreign Players Updates Volume #172
Wei Chuan Dragons News: Jake Brigham
On April 15, the KBO’s Kiwoom Heroes announced the signing of Jake Brigham from the Wei Chuan Dragons in the CPBL. According to Yonhap News Agency, Brigham’s salary will be 480,000 USD with an additional $50,000 as performance incentives.
“We thank Jake Brigham for his contribution to the team and wish him the best of luck in the KBO,” said the Dragons general manager. “We are currently in the process of finding a new foreign pitcher, and nothing is set in stone yet.”
The Dragons also confirmed that Jake Brigham will stay with the team until the end of April. He would roughly have two or three starts before heading off to Korea.
As of April 15, the 33-year-old right-hander posted a dominating 0.63 ERA and 0.87 WHIP across five starts for the Dragons. In a span of 28.2 innings, he struck out 15 and only issued three walks. He is currently in third place with a 0.72 WAR (pitchers only).
Jake Brigham is scheduled to arrive in Korea on May 2 and then will undergo a 14-day quarantine before reporting to the Kiwoom Heroes.
Further Readings
Foreign players come and goes, therefore we compiled a foreign players tracker to keep track of all the foreign players signing for the 2021 CPBL season.
Who might the Dragons target as a replacement?
No idea at the moment, no news and hints about that yet. It would be interesting to see what kind of pitchers they will sign to replace Brigham.
Because with them being an expansion team, is it really worth spending 30-50K USD a month to hire a high-tier pitcher? Or do they just want someone to cover the innings for the rest of the season?
The Heroes’ decision to sign Brigham and dump Josh Smith after only two starts is kind of weird. I would have to guess that KBO teams were worried about Brigham being hurt last off-season, and now that he has proven he’s healthy, the Heroes came calling. Still, seems kind of weird to have given up on Smith so quickly. I wonder how much of the roughly $500K contract he signed is guaranteed.
Brigham won’t be able to pitch in the KBO for at least a month, but Smith has reportedly already been cut. That’s potentially five lost starts by a foreign starter.
I suspect it was the case of fear of other teams might snatch Brigham. That’s why the Heroes pounced early.
There was rumour at least 4 KBO teams were monitoring Jake Brigham during his time in Taiwan.