Cody Ponce of the Hanwha Eagles poses with the trophy after successful the Korea Baseball Group regular-season MVP award throughout the awards ceremony at Lotte Lodge World in Seoul, Nov. 24. Yonhap
Cody Ponce, the Korean baseball MVP in 2025, has signed with the Toronto Blue Jays.
Workforce sources instructed Yonhap Information Company on Wednesday that Ponce is becoming a member of the Blue Jays, confirming earlier studies out of Toronto and the USA stating that the right-hander had agreed to a three-year deal value $30 million.
Ponce was named the MVP of the 2025 Korea Baseball Group (KBO) season final month after successful the Triple Crown with 17 wins, a 1.89 ERA and a league-record 252 strikeouts in 180 2/3 innings for the Hanwha Eagles.
Ponce has 20 main league video games underneath his belt, all of them with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2020 and 2021. Earlier than becoming a member of the Eagles for the 2025 season, Ponce had pitched in Japan for 3 seasons.
The 31-year-old now joins the reigning American League (AL) pennant winners whose rotation might be fronted by the incumbent ace Kevin Gausman, former Cy Younger Award winner Shane Bieber, and an enormous offseason signing Dylan Stop, the 2022 AL Cy Younger runner-up with 5 straight 200-strikeout seasons.
The Blue Jays even have a rising younger star in Trey Yesavage, who thrived within the group’s World Collection run regardless of restricted regular-season expertise and whose workload will seemingly be monitored intently subsequent 12 months. Two veteran starters from the 2025 season, Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt, are each free brokers. One other longtime starter, Jose Berrios, was injured late within the 2025 season and didn’t pitch within the postseason.
The Blue Jays employed one other former KBO pitcher, Eric Lauer, as a swingman in 2025.
Earlier within the day, a number of U.S. studies stated one other Eagles ace from the 2025 season, Ryan Weiss, had signed with the Houston Astros.
Citing group and league sources, studies stated Weiss will make $2.6 million in his one-year main league contract and will make over $7 million by means of 2027 if a membership choice is exercised for a second season.
Hanwha Eagles starter Ryan Weiss pitches towards the LG Twins throughout Recreation 4 of the Korean Collection at Daejeon Hanwha Life Ballpark within the central metropolis of Daejeon, Oct. 30. Yonhap
Weiss, who turns 29 subsequent Wednesday, has by no means beforehand pitched within the majors.
He was chosen within the fourth spherical by the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2018, when Deric Ladnier, the present senior director of beginner scouting for the Astros, was in control of Arizona’s drafts.
Weiss had reached as excessive as Triple-A earlier than taking his expertise to Asia, first to Taiwan in 2023 after which to the KBO throughout the 2024 season.
As a brief damage substitute for Ricardo Sanchez, Weiss thrived in his restricted alternatives, going 5-5 with a 3.76 ERA and recording 98 strikeouts in 91 2/3 innings.
It earned him a full contract for the 2025 season, and Weiss emerged as one of the vital dominant starters within the KBO. He went 16-5 with a 2.87 ERA, plus 207 strikeouts in 178 2/3 innings. He completed third general in wins and innings pitched, fourth in strikeouts and sixth in ERA.
Weiss and Ponce turned the primary pair of teammates to every prime 200 strikeouts in a season as they helped the Eagles attain the postseason for the primary time since 2018. They fell to the LG Twins within the Korean Collection.
Getting ready for the potential lack of each aces, the Eagles signed former minor league pitcher Wilkel Hernandez on Saturday and purchased Taiwanese hurler Wang Yan-Cheng as their Asian quota participant on Nov. 13.
KBO golf equipment can signal a most two foreign-born pitchers and, beginning within the 2026 season, an extra participant both from an Asian nation or Australia. The Eagles now have room for one more pitcher from abroad.
