Seoul: The South Korean professional baseball league has offered a mea culpa after its oversight prevented a club from acquiring a minor league pitcher. The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) apologized to both the LG Twins of the KBO and the Ulsan Whales of the developmental Futures League late Wednesday, after the Twins' attempt to acquire Whales pitcher Akitake Okada fell through earlier in the day.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the Twins nearly signed Okada as a replacement for Australian pitcher Lachlan Wells, who had been pitching poorly for the past few weeks and had also been dealing with left shoulder problems. If the move had been completed, Okada would have become the first Whales player to sign with a KBO team midseason. The Whales, competing in their first Futures League season, do not have an affiliation with any KBO club, meaning their players cannot simply be called up to the top league by a parent club like those on other Futures League teams.
The Twins inquired the KBO about the proposed move Monday, given its unprecedented nature, and the league office gave the go-ahead sign to both the Twins and the Whales. However, the KBO told the two teams Wednesday that a Futures League player may only sign with a KBO club between the end of the postseason in one year and July 31 the following year. This meant the Twins had missed the deadline to acquire Okada.
"There was no issue with the LG Twins' inquiry and the way they pursued the deal. This was the case of us not being thorough in our review of the rules when the club first contacted us," the KBO said in a statement. "We have apologized to both LG and Ulsan regarding this matter." Okada had traveled to Seoul earlier Wednesday to prepare to join the Twins but later turned back to Ulsan, some 300 kilometers southeast of the capital.
Okada, 32, had a 4-3 record with one save and one hold for the Whales in 13 games, including 11 starts. Meanwhile, the Twins said Wells had been diagnosed with rotator cuff damage in his pitching shoulder and will be reevaluated in four weeks. Wells had a promising start to his first full KBO season as an Asian quota player, after having a four-game cup of coffee with another South Korean team, Kiwoom Heroes, in 2025.
Wells had a 5-2 record with a 2.88 ERA in his first 13 starts through June. He wobbled a bit in June, though, pitching to a 5.01 ERA with 13 earned runs allowed in 23 1/3 innings, before hitting a rough patch in July. In five outings that month, Wells went 0-3 with a 7.20 ERA, after giving up 20 earned runs on 31 hits in 25 innings. He surrendered 11 home runs in 48 1/3 innings in 10 starts in June and July, after limiting his opponents to just one home run in his first 45 1/3 frames from April to May.
Wells lasted his season-low 2 2/3 innings in his most recent game on Aug. 4, when he was charged with two earned runs against the SSG Landers. The Twins yanked him during the fourth inning for Park Si-won, and Twins manager Youm Kyoung-youb announced Tuesday that Park would replace Wells in the starting rotation, with the Australian moving to the bullpen.