When Jon Deeble, the director of Pacific Rim scouting for the Los Angeles Dodgers, first saw South Korean high school pitcher Jang Hyun-seok in action, it wasn't just the teenager's size or velocity that stood out.
As noticeable as those attributes were, Deeble, a longtime minor league manager and talent evaluator, was able to see things past the numbers on his radar gun.
"The one thing that really stuck out in my mind was his competitiveness," Deeble said of Jang during the Korean player's introductory press conference in Seoul on Monday. "I think that's off the charts, his ability to want to win. I've watched him in a lot of games and he competes his rear off. I think if you want to pitch in the majors, you've got to be competitive, you've got to want to win. That was probably the biggest thing I saw. He has a desire to be good and desire to win, and he's very competitive."
Jang is a perfect 3-0 this season for Masan Yongma High School. He has struck out a whopping 52 batters in only 29 innings while walking 14. Opponents have only managed nine hits against the 19-year-old right-hander this year.
"He's got four pitches, he throws for strikes. He pounds the strike zone," Deeble said. "He doesn't walk hitters."
Deeble said the Dodgers had been following him since 2020, and they signed him to an international signing bonus of US$900,000 last week.
Each year, Major League Baseball (MLB) clubs receive a designated amount of pool money that they can spend on signing international free agents. As recently as June, the Dodgers only had $6,500 left for this year.
They traded two minor league prospects to the Chicago White Sox in exchange for a reported sum of $1 million in pool money, and then used that sum to sign Jang.
"When this opportunity came up for the money, it was viewed by everybody that Jang was the guy we wanted," Deeble said. "Obviously, we had a lot of reports and video on him. And it was basically a no-brainer in the end when there was money available. We're just so excited."
Deeble, who managed in the Miami Marlins' minor leagues in the late 1990s, said Jang reminded him of former Marlin ace Josh Beckett, also a hulking right-hander who won the 2003 World Series MVP award.
Whether Jang will carve out a successful big league career like Beckett -- who also won the American League Championship Series MVP for the Boston Red Sox in 2007 and pitched in 14 major league seasons -- remains to be seen.
"He'll start out in spring training. His ability will determine where he goes. There's a chance he may jump Rookie ball. That hasn't been even discussed yet," Deeble said of Jang's immediate future in the Dodgers system. "We need to get him over and get him evaluated. The one thing that we want to make sure is he's in the best possible shape he can be before we push him up to higher levels."
Deeble said the Dodgers have already designed a specialized strengthening and conditioning program for Jang, and the organization hopes to have him in early February for pitchers' camp.
Deeble also said Jang will be in good hands in the Dodgers' minor leagues, given their strong history of developing big league-caliber pitchers.
"I think it's no secret that we develop pitchers as well, if not better than anybody in the world," Deeble said. "People that run our pitching programs are so talented that we're really comfortable putting any of our players in their hands. We know they will be able to get their best out of the players. We presented Jang with a lot of video, which showed him some of the stuff we do in our player development. I think he was pretty much blown away by what we showed him."
Source: Yonhap News Agency