SEOUL– In a show of goodwill for their former franchise icon, the South Korean baseball club Hanwha Eagles said Monday they will allow Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin to keep training at their home facilities throughout March during Major League Baseball’s work stoppage.
Ryu and the rest of major leaguers on 40-man rosters have been locked out by MLB club owners over a labor dispute, and they have been denied access to big league facilities.
During a typical offseason, Ryu spends a few weeks in South Korea before traveling back to the United States for spring training in February. However, with the lockout dragging on, Ryu joined the Eagles on Feb. 3, two days after the start of their spring training. After working out in the southern town of Geoje, the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) club moved into their home park in Daejeon, some 160 kilometers south of Seoul, on Feb. 21.
Ryu pitched for the Eagles from 2006 to 2012, winning both the MVP and the Rookie of the Year awards in 2006. Ryu signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers through a posting process in 2012, and then joined the Blue Jays as a free agent in late 2019.
The KBO preseason starts on Saturday and concludes on March 29. But the Eagles will spend the early portion of the exhibition calendar on the road, allowing Ryu to continue to work out at Hanwha Life Eagles Park without getting in the way of his ex-KBO club.
“We’ve told Ryu Hyun-jin that he can keep using our facilities as he pleases,” an Eagles official said Monday. “If he wants, he can continue to come to our ballpark after the start of the preseason.”
Teams will each play 16 games during the preseason, and the Eagles will play their first 12 games away from Daejeon. They will only be home for the final four games, from March 26 to 29.
A source close to Ryu said the pitcher is following talks between MLB and the players’ union, and that he is prepared to head back to the U.S. as soon as a new collective bargaining agreement between the two sides is signed.
The latest round of negotiations between the parties produced no progress in New York on Sunday.
Source: Yonhap News Agency