In a season with very few bright spots, Andrew Albers was one of them for the Minnesota Twins in 2013.
The 28-year-old left-hander probably won’t get an opportunity to improve for the Twins this season because he’ll probably be pitching in Korea.
Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press is reporting that Albers has reached a tentative agreement to pitch for the Hanwha Eagles of the Korean Baseball Organization.
Albers will make a little more than the major league minimum of $500,000. HardBallTalk.com’s Aaron Gleeman says the move makes sense because Albers was going to have a hard time getting back to the big leagues.
Albers went 11-5 with a 2.86 earned-run average for Triple-A Rochester last season. He was named the team’s Minor League Pitcher of the Year and he’ll be honored during the Diamond Awards on Friday.
He went 2-5 with a 4.05 ERA in the big leagues, but he came within two outs of pitching back-to-back shutouts to start his career.
He fired 8.1 shutout innings in his major league debut against the Kansas City Royals before following that up with a complete-game, two-hit shutout against the Cleveland Indians. He’s one of six players in MLB history to pitch at least eight shutout innings in each of their first two games, according to Aaron Gleeman.
