The San Francisco Giants have finally filled their void at third base after a trade with the Miami Marlins. Shortstop Jung-ho Kang's Korean club, the Nexen Heroes, has accepted the top bid for the infielder on Saturday.
Late on Friday the Giants acquired third baseman Casey McGehee from the Marlins. Earlier that day Miami executed a trade with the New York Yankees that brought them infielder Martin Prado, who is now expected to take over at third base since the team also acquired second baseman Dee Gordon from the Los Angeles Dodgers earlier this month.
In exchange for the 2014 NL Comeback Player of the Year, the Giants sent minor league pitchers Kendry Flores and Luis Castillo to Miami. San Francisco now has one less thing to worry about now that they have a third baseman for the 2015 season. McGehee, who played in Japan in 2013 after he failed to sign with an MLB team, slashed .287/.355/.357 with 4 home runs and 76 RBIs in 2014.
The Giants will to continue to search for an outfielder as well as starting pitching after filling the third base position.
It was noted San Francisco was once interested in Korean shortstop Jung-ho Kang, but with the addition of McGehee that no longer appears to be the case. Kang has spent the last seven seasons with the Nexen Heroes and had his best season in 2014 after batting .356/.459/.739/1.198 with 40 home runs and 117 RBIs in 117 games. His current club, the Nexen Heroes, reportedly accepted the highest bid for the slugger on Saturday from an unnamed MLB club.
MLB teams had until 5 p.m. ET on Friday to get their bids in if they were interested in Kang. Those said to be interested were the St. Louis Cardinals, Minnesota Twins, New York Mets, Oakland Athletics and Giants, but we can cross the Mets and (probably) the Giants off that list because New York didn't submit a bid and San Francisco now has a complete infield.
According to Yonhap News, the winning bid for Kang was $5,002,015, which puts a lot of teams in play since small market clubs can compete at such a price. The team with the winning bid has 30 days to negotiate with Kang. If they fail to agree on a contract then Kang will be sent back to the Heroes and the bid will return to the MLB team.
