PITTSBURGH — A few years ago, Jun-Seok Shim’s reputation as a young high school pitcher in South Korea piqued the Pirates’ interest. When team officials finally got to see him pitch in person, they made signing Shim a top priority.
On Sunday, Shim, ranked the second-best pitcher and No. 10 prospect in the international market by MLB Pipeline, was among 22 players acquired by the Pirates on the first day of the international signing period.
“He’s one of the top international prospects and rightly so,” said Junior Vizcaino, Pittsburgh’s director of international scouting. “He can do some things with baseball. Ability given by God.
Shim will come to Pittsburgh later this month to finalize his deal. The terms of his bonus were not immediately available.
The one-year signing period runs until December 15. The Pirates have a bonus pool of $5,825,500.
Shim, 18, decided in August to opt out of the KBO draft so he could go straight to the major leagues. His agent is Scott Boras.
He has two outstanding pitches: a fastball that sits at around 95 mph and a curveball that’s 12-to-6. His still-developing slider and changeover also show promise.
Shim caught the eye of scouts in 2020, when he had a 1.42 ERA and racked up 32 strikeouts in 19 innings with Duksoo High School in Seoul. In 2021, he failed to allow an earned run in 14 1/3 innings before injuring his elbow.
“It was really hard to see him pitch there (in Korea) because of the way he was treated and the way they used him,” Vizcaino said.
Last year, Shim was hampered by a lower back injury. In 20 1/3 innings, he had a 5.14 ERA and struck out 40, but also walked 22 and hit 12 batters. He was arrested in August after suffering a hairline fracture in his big toe.
The Pirates spotted Shim when he was healthy and were impressed with his athleticism and smooth, easy arm action.
“Even though he was throwing really hard, it wasn’t an effort. You didn’t hear a lot of grunts or anything like that,” Vizcaino said. “The flight of the ball had a little jump. It almost gives the illusion that he is going up instead of down because he has so much backspin and so much speed behind him.
Here’s a breakdown of the Pirates’ other signings on Sunday:
Right-handed throwers: Carlos Castillo (Venezuela), David Matoma (Uganda), Daniel Francia (Dominican Republic), Dioris Martinez (Dominican Republic), Carlos Mateo (Dominican Republic) and Bladimir Pichardo (Dominican Republic).
Matoma, a 16-year-old who threw a fastball in the mid-90s, is only the third player ever drafted out of Uganda. Last year, the Dodgers signed pitchers Ben Serunkuma and Umar Male.
Scout Tom Gillespie, who lives in Germany and covers Europe and Africa, lobbied for Matoma by sending training videos to Vizcaino.
“The videos just keep getting better and the speed keeps increasing,” Vizcaino said. “After the last video he sent me, I said, ‘OK, we’ve got enough perspective. What do we want to do?’ And he said, ‘I want to sign this kid,’ and I totally trusted him.”
The Pirates are used to finding talent in places that aren’t hotbeds of baseball. They recruited players from India (Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel), South Africa (Gift Ngoepe) and Lithuania (Dovydas Neverauskas).
“When we identify the talents we like, we don’t hesitate to attack the players,” Vizcaino said. “(With Matoma) it was the same tests, the same groundwork, the same family traits and the same abilities that we look for in anyone else.”
We signed RHP David Matoma from Uganda.
Prior to this year, only two Ugandan-born players had been signed to MLB affiliate baseball. pic.twitter.com/NytPqUwX6i
— Young Bucs (@YoungBucsPIT) January 15, 2023
Left-handed throwers: Nicolas Carreno (Venezuela), Ronal Gomez (Colombia), Janderson Linares (Venezuela) and Keury Almonte (Dominican Republic).
Voltigeurs: Miguel Rodriguez (Venezuela), Andres Villafane (Colombia), Angel Aquino (Dominican Republic), Cristian Jauregui (Cuba) and Raymond Mola (Dominican Republic).
The top guy here is Mola, who is ranked No. 26 by MLB Pipeline. The 17-year-old from Peravia, Dominican Republic projects himself as a corner fielder. His basic defensive and running skills are average, but he is an aggressive hitter who can drive the ball on any court.
“We love Raymond because of his bat and his ability to take on the baseball,” Vizcaino said. “He does certain things at his age that tell you he’s advanced – the way he thinks about the game, the game, the aggression.”
Vizcaino took issue with a scouting report that described Mola (6-foot-2, 190 pounds) as a “tall teenager.”
“A child with a big body? I don’t know if I’m okay with that,” Vizcaino said. “When we first met him, he had a certain sweetness to his body, a little bit of baby fat. But he worked hard on his body. When I talked to our coaches who (in this class) has the best body and who is the most athletic, they all said Raymond Mola. This speaks to his work ethic.
Aquino could be the sleeper of this signature class. “Big kid (6-foot-5, 207 pounds) with athleticism,” Vizcaino said. “A lanky, lanky kid, but he’s going to get stronger. We think he will be able to play an outside corner (point) and hit for power.
Catchers: Angel Perez (Venezuela), Joseph Sequera (Mexico) and Jonathan Rivero (Venezuela).
Shortstops: Joenelly Van Der Linden (Aruba), Gimenez Yosmar (Venezuela) and Antonio Pimentel (République Dominicaine).
(PNC Park Photo: Charles LeClaire/USA Today)
