Lotte will give you more money. We have 6G left, but 400 million won is awesome…Velazquez Returns From Elbow Surgery, Why Is He a Winning Player
Aug 07, 2025
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On the 7th (Korea time), the MLB Trade Rumors, which covers the news of the U.S. Major League transfer market, reported Velazquez's trip to Korea. Cleveland, which had to release Velazquez, announced the fact first, delivering the news faster than Lotte Giants' official contract announcement.
MLB Trade Rumors announced that Velazquez has signed a contract with Lotte, a KBO club, for the rest of the season. Velazquez played for Cleveland's Triple-A team this year, and Cleveland also received cash when he sold the rest of his contract to Lotte. Velazquez reported that he will receive more money from Lotte than he will receive for the rest of the season in Cleveland.
Lotte signed an annual salary of 330,000 dollars with Velazquez. Considering the remaining number of games, it is an unconventional amount. Lotte has 38 games left as of the 7th.
Tucker Davidson, an existing foreign pitcher who announced his breakup while recruiting Velazquez, last took the mound against the Busan KIA Tigers on the 6th. Velazquez will enter Korea on the 8th and adjust his pitching schedule. Assuming that Velazquez stays in Davison's place, he is expected to be able to take the mound up to seven games if there are many in the remaining six games of the season.
If a starting pitcher plays a healthy season, he usually takes the mound in 29 to 30 games. The maximum amount that a new foreign player in the KBO can receive is $1 million (about 1.3 billion won). In other words, Velazquez was promised better treatment than that, even though he would receive $200,000 (about 200 million won) per six games.
Lotte said "Belazquez is a right-hander who is 1 m 90 and weighs 95 kg and was selected by the Houston Astros in the second round of the 2010 draft. Based on fastball, slider, knuckle curve, and change-up with a maximum speed of 153 kilometers, he has pitched more than 760 innings while playing for nine seasons in the Major League. In particular, he decided that he would play a necessary role for the team in important games by having excellent game management skills with his experience in 144 Major League games"We looked forward to it.
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This year, Cleveland was called up to the big league at the end of April, but the transfer of designation (DFA) was imposed without playing, and he was maintaining a minor league contract with Cleveland after the waiver announcement. This year's Triple-A record is 18 games, 5 wins, 4 losses, 81 ⅔ innings, 95 strikeouts, and a 3.86 ERA.
MLB Trade Rumors said that Velasquez had a good strikeout rate of 26.8% in Triple-A this year, but also a high walk rate of 14.1%. He threw an average of less than four ⅔ innings per game, which was a deliberate result to some extent. He blew the entire 2024 season when he underwent elbow surgery in June 2023. Cleveland didn't allow him to go over four ⅓ every time he took the mound until the end of May. Velazquez still hasn't pitched a very long inning, but he has averaged five innings per game while also going six innings in seven of his 12 recent starts.
The media also reported that `This year's Velazquez became stronger as the season passed. He has a 3.17 ERA in the last 12 games. His average fastball speed is 92.5 miles (about 148.9 kilometers), which is about 2 miles lower than in his heyday, but he is supplementing it with sliders, knuckle curves, changeups, and sinkers.
Lotte has high expectations for Velazquez to the extent that it gave up Davison, who achieved 10 wins. As he has been managed by limiting innings in the United States, he is expected to be able to throw with all his might in Korea. It's not the type of ball-punching like left-hander fireballer Alec Gamboa, but I'm counting on Velazquez's rich experience.
Velazquez is expected to stand in front of Lotte Giants fans who are enthusiastically cheering for him. As he joins the team at an important time, he is determined to do his best in every game to advance to the postseason with responsibility.
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This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
