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While with the Buffalo Bisons, the Triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays, earlier this year, right-hander Anders Tolhurst found himself chatting with teammate Eric Lauer about the South Korean league, the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO). Lauer spent the second half of last season with the Kia Tigers, who would go on to win the Korean Series title.
According to Yonhap News Agency, at the time, Tolhurst, 25, couldn't have imagined he himself would end up in the KBO this summer. He is now pitching for the LG Twins, currently the favorite to win their second Korean Series title in three years. They have the best record in the league through Thursday at 70-43-3 (wins-losses-ties).
"It was never a thought of mine like, 'Oh, I'm going to go play there,'" Tolhurst told Yonhap News Agency on Thursday before the Twins hosted the Lotte Giants at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul. "I didn't really know a whole lot about (the KBO). Just saw it on socia l media, knew some guys here and there that played a little bit."
The Twins announced their signing of Tolhurst on Aug. 3 to replace inconsistent starter Elieser Hernandez. Tolhurst said after his agent informed him of interest from the Twins in late July, things moved along quickly. Following the July 31 trade deadline in Major League Baseball, with the Blue Jays acquiring veteran pitchers to bolster their postseason drive, Tolhurst decided taking his talent to South Korea was "probably the better route for me" this year.
The Twins are surely glad Tolhurst made that choice. Tolhurst did not allow a run in his first two starts, a stretch of 13 innings, while striking out 13 and walking only two. Tolhurst has surrendered seven hits and only one of them has gone for extra bases.
"Just staying confident and trusting my stuff and just being able to attack the zone and knowing that my stuff plays well here," Tolhurst said of his KBO starts so far. "Letting my d efense work behind me. I think the biggest thing is just being able to trust those guys, knowing that I can pitch to contact. I think that frees me up when I'm on the mound -- to be able to pitch how I would like to and stay on the attack the whole time."
Foreign pitchers in the KBO often compete under pressure to deliver wins right away and are especially kept on a short leash by teams in "win now" mode like the Twins. Hernandez was their postseason hero last year and had seven starts in which he gave up one or zero run this season. Still, the Twins decided he wasn't good enough to push them to the top in 2025, and they are banking on Tolhurst to lead the rotation alongside former big leaguer Yonny Chirinos and homegrown starters.
It could be daunting for Tolhurst to go from pitching in Triple-A one moment and to trying to deliver a title for a KBO team the next. The pitcher said he won't pay much mind to external circumstances. "Just allowing myself to play freely and not really think about those things and let my game do the speaking," Tolhurst said of his approach. "I think overall, just staying confident and trusting my stuff is the biggest key to my success. And no matter what happens, I'm going to go out there and compete every time and give it my all. If I'm doing that and I have one bad outing or whatever it is, I'm not going to be too worried about it because I know that I'll be able to bounce back and give my team a chance to win every time."
Tolhurst said, based on his own two outings and other games he'd watched from the dugout, he finds KBO hitters to be "pretty aggressive." "They can handle the fastball pretty well. I feel like they're able to put the bat on the ball," Tolhurst added. "I think the contact skill here is a little bit higher than what I'm used to. They've got good bat-to-ball skills. But other than that, with how I pitch, it's pretty good out here."
He is also thriving with the KBO ball, which he said is tackier an d has higher seams than the ball he threw in the United States. "I actually enjoy the baseball here. I think with some of my pitches, they've improved a little bit with the movement," said Tolhurst, who throws four-seam fastball, curveball, cutter and split changeup. "It's been a plus."
Another plus for Tolhurst has been pitching in front of raucous KBO crowds. Tolhurst never expected constant cheering and chanting, from first pitch to final out -- "It's nothing like I've ever pitched in before," he said -- but he has still been able to feed off the fans' energy. "I hear the noise but I'm also able to tune it out and stay focused," he said. "Just the noise overall, I think, has given me a little bit of a boost. Especially playing here at home, the fans are great and the energy they bring every day is just amazing."