CPBL Foreign Players Updates Volume #87
Fubon Guardians News: Henry Sosa
The Fubon Guardians confirmed on June 3 that KBO’s SK Wyverns have purchased the contract of right-hander Henry Sosa. According to the Guardians’ representative, Henry Sosa will leave Taiwan on June 4 for Korea.
“We thank Henry Sosa for his contributions to the Guardians in the past few months, and we wish he can continue to perform in the KBO,” said the Guardians’ general manager.
A few moments later, the SK Wyverns have officially confirmed the signing as well, stating Henry Sosa is set to replace Brock Dykxhoorn. The Wyverns have signed Sosa for $350,000 USD in signing bonus and an annual salary of $170,000 USD.
On June 2, before the Guardians vs Monkeys game, the representatives from the SK Wyverns met with the vice general manager of the Fubon Guardians. Many speculated the deal was struck in that meeting. (NPB and KBO teams have been eyeing Henry Sosa since April 2019, here is our Henry Sosa news tracker)
Henry Sosa finished his 2019 CPBL season with a dominating 1.56 ERA, 0.81 WHIP and 2.55 FIP across 86.2 innings. With Henry Sosa leaving for the KBO, the Guardians are expecting to call up left-hander Ryan Bollinger from the farm team.
| Team | Games | IP | ERA | WHIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monkeys | 3 | 21.2 | 3.32 | 0.97 |
| Uni-Lions | 5 | 34.0 | 1.06 | 0.91 |
| Brothers | 4 | 31.2 | 0.87 | 0.58 |
| Total | 12 | 86.2 | 1.56 | 0.81 |
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 2019 CPBL season.
Aside from the fact that Brock Dyxhoorn got a raw deal, I’m not sure this deal makes a lot of sense for the Wyverns. They presumably had to pay Fubon a significant price ($200,000?) to buy Sosa’s contract rights, and there is no guarantee that Sosa will pitch better in the KBO than Dyxhoorn would have going forward.
It will be interesting to see where Dyxhoorn ends up when the dust has settled. I would think there is a good chance the Kia Tigers will pick him up to replace Joe Wieland or the Lotte Giants will sign him to replace the injured Jake Thompson.
Yeah, apparently Dyxhoorn’s velocity did not meet the team’s expectation and unable to go deep into the game. (For foreign player standard anyway). We’ll see if any team decide to pick up Dyxhoorn from the waiver list, maybe it will be the Giants since they are pretty much one man down.
There’s no news on the buyout fee though, but hopefully someone might leak it either here in Taiwan or in Korea. If I have to take a guess, probably between $60,000 to $100,000. (Assuming Sosa was on $30,000 USD per month salary in Taiwan, half-season contract, using base $30,000 multiplied by between 2 to 3). The only way I can see $200,000 buyout fee that’s if his contract is full year with the Guardians? Seems quite high for a buyout though.
There is also the tax issues too. According to Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, Sosa owe around $760,000 USD in taxes, he will pay a portion of that using the full amount of his $350,000 signing bonus. There is also some conflicted reports saying Sosa has been paying off his taxes for a while now, the amount is now down to $300,000.
I don’t know about you, but that smells a lot like a potential under the table deal between the player and the team with that extra $460,000. But anyway, I guess we will never know happen, it is good to hear that he got his tax problem sorted, that’s always a good news.
So I assume that Ryan Bollinger will get to pitch now for Fubon’s major league team. If he can’t cut it, Sean Nolin (age 29), Dave Kubiak (29), Craig Stem (29) and Michael Mariot (30) look like the most promising Atlantic League starters at this moment.
Interesting that Fubon would sell Sosa now, when the team is only a game behind Lamigo for first place, and only 16 games left in the first half. Four more starts from Sosa could be the difference between 1st and 2nd place for Fubon. My guess would be that Sosa had something in his contract that required Fubon to sell him as soon as a reasonable offer to purchase his rights came in.
Yes, I think there’s an escape clause in his contract. There is also another factor if both parties left on a good terms with no animosity, there will be a possibility for him to return in the future (or his agent will recommend more pitchers to the Guardians).
I think the Guardians already planned this out too, that’s why they signed Ryan Bollinger as a replacement back in April. Would be interesting to see how Bollinger does in the 1st team, his farm team stats are not that flash. But again, maybe he was just settling in and adjusting to the game in Taiwan.
I agree that there could be future benefits to Fubon by letting Sosa return fast to the KBO: other foreign players who are better than the foreigners CPBL teams usually sign, may be willing to pitch in the CPBL for less money if they know they can move up to a better paying league fast if they perform well.
According to SK Wyverns’ manager, the team have been monitoring Henry Sosa since late April. Everything starting to add up now with the Guardians signing Ryan Bollinger back in mid-April.