Cody Pons (30), who is considered to be a highly likely player to enter the KBO League, left the Rakuten Golden Eagles in the Japanese professional baseball league (NPB) and became a free body.
The Rakuten club officially announced on the 2nd, “We inform you that the decision has been made without signing a contract for the 2025 season with Pons.”
Ponce is a pitcher whose name has been steadily on the list of foreign players in KBO League clubs, and the possibility of going to Korea is rising to the surface again this winter.
Ponce, who was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers as the 55th overall pick in the second round of the 2015 MLB Rookie Draft, made his big league debut in Pittsburgh in 2020. He showed the possibility with one win, one loss and a 3.18 ERA in five games (three starts) in the first 토토사이트 꽁머니 season, but he no longer made the big league stage after slumping in 15 games (two starts) in 2021 with a 7.04 ERA. In the minor league, he played 476 innings in 134 games (75 starts), leaving 24 wins, 34 losses and a 3.93 ERA.
Pons, who turned to the Asian stage, signed a contract with the Nippon-Ham Fighters and headed to the NPB in 2022. As the starting pitcher of the Softbank Hawks game held at Sapporo Dome on August 27 that year, Pons pitched 113 pitches during nine innings, striking out two outs and striking out six (one walk). It was the first no-hitter for a Nippon-Ham pitcher in 27 years since Yukihiro Nishijaki in 1995.
Ponce, who made an impressive milestone but only played 83 ⅓ in 14 games due to injury, ended his first season in Japan with 3 wins, 5 losses and a 3.35 ERA. Ponce, who played 10 games (51 ⅔ innings) in 2023, his second year, left Nippon Ham with a 4-5 record and a 3.66 ERA.
Since then, Pons has signed Rakuten and continued his career on the NPB stage, but the results have been disastrous. Pons, who has been very sluggish with 3 wins, 6 losses and an ERA of 6.72 in 15 games this season, was humiliated by 12 runs in 3 innings against Softbank, which had a no-hitter during his time at Nippon Ham, eventually failed to renew his contract with Rakuten. Attention is focusing on whether Pons, who became a free agent, will sign a contract with the KBO League team as rumored.