David Buchanan (34), who played for four seasons with the Samsung Lions, returned to his old team.
The Philadelphia Phillies announced on the 14th (Korea time) that they signed a minor league contract with Buchanan and will join Major League spring camp as an invited player.
Buchanan played for the Phillies all the way before he challenged the Asian stage.
He was drafted in the seventh round of the 2010 draft and made his big league debut in 2014, going 8-17 with a 5.01 ERA in 35 games over two years.
After leaving the Phillies in 2017 and signing with the Yakult Swallows of the Japanese professional baseball league, he spent three years here before advancing to the KBO League in 2020.
He had his new heyday with Daegu. He pitched well in 113 games over four seasons with 54 wins and 28 losses with a 3.02 ERA.
He topped the multi-win category with 16 wins in the 2021 season and led the team to the postseason for the first time in six years.
He showed good performance both quantitatively and qualitatively, recording four consecutive complete games. On top of that, he was notable for his energetic performance in the dugout.
After the 2023 season, the two sides negotiated the renewal, but they chose to break up because they could not narrow their differences.
Samsung announced the breakdown of the negotiations at the time, saying, “Unfortunately, the contract renewal negotiations broke down as the club rejected the final proposal in the process of considering entering the Major League recently.”
Buchanan said, “I even thought about retiring from Samsung, but it didn’t work out as I wanted. It was a difficult decision to give up my contract with Samsung. My body always has blue blood that symbolizes Samsung. Now that I’m leaving Samsung, I want to tell you how precious my fans are to me.”
Returning as a more mature pitcher in the 2024 season, he will try to play in the big league again in his former team. 퀸알바
Meanwhile, Philadelphia acquired right-hander Caleb Haute from the Miami Marlins on a waver claim the same day, transferring infielder Diego Castillo to make his spot on the 40-man roster.
On top of that, right-hander Andrew Bellati and outfielder Simone Mujioti were transferred to Triple-A roster via waivers after the transfer. They will participate in the camp as invited players.