Infielder Patrick Knowledge has reached an settlement with the Kia Tigers of the Korea Baseball Group, as famous by Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap Information. Yoo notes that the deal is presently pending a bodily. The Naranjeros de Hermosillo, for whom Knowledge had been taking part in within the Mexican Pacific Winter League, introduced earlier at present that they’ve eliminated Knowledge from their roster in deference to the desires of his new membership after the edges agreed to a deal.
Knowledge, 33, was a first-round decide by St. Louis again in 2012 however however didn’t make his massive league debut till 2018. After making it into simply 43 video games throughout three seasons within the majors with the Cardinals, Rangers, and Cubs, he settled into an everyday position with Chicago throughout the 2021 season. As a 29-year-old rookie that yr, Knowledge took over the on a regular basis third base job from outgoing star Kris Bryant and carried out admirably within the position. He hit .231/.305/.518 (117 wRC+) regardless of an eye-popping 40.8% strikeout charge thanks to twenty-eight homers in simply 375 journeys to the plate and earned himself a fourth-place end in NL Rookie of the Yr voting.
That success Knowledge present in his rookie season prompt he may need a future within the majors if he managed to chop down on the strikeouts a bit, and he did that over the subsequent two seasons. In 2022 and ’23, Knowledge hit a mixed .206/.295/.453 (108 wRC+) with a 35.2% strikeout charge and 48 homers in 836 journeys to the plate. By the tip of the 2023 season, Knowledge had typically ceded his on a regular basis position within the lineup to a mix of Nick Madrigal, Christopher Morel, and deadline addition Jeimer Candelario, and he headed into the 2024 season projecting as a bench bat for Chicago.
His time on the bench with the Cubs didn’t go particularly properly, as Knowledge posted his worst season since getting an prolonged look within the majors again in 2021. He stepped as much as the plate 174 instances in 75 video games with Chicago this yr and hit simply .171/.237/.392 (75 wRC+). Whereas his strikeout charge ticked right down to “simply” 33.9%, Knowledge struggled to generate his trademark energy with simply eight residence runs this yr, and his stroll charge suffered as he took a free base simply 5.7% of the time. That steep decline in manufacturing along side Knowledge’s ever-shrinking position on the group led the Cubs to non-tender him final month, at which level he joined the free agent market.
Now, it seems he’ll head abroad to check his skills in KBO league play, which is notoriously devoid of high-end energy hitters. Former massive league Matt Davidson led the league with 46 residence runs final yr and sported a high-power, strikeout-heavy profile much like Knowledge throughout his time within the majors, so it’s definitely throughout the realm of risk that Knowledge winds up doing fairly properly for himself as a part of a Tigers offense that already led the KBO league in slugging share this previous season.
