Hanwha Eagles sign Yonathan Perlaza on one-year, $1 million deal

Yonathan Perlaza. [SCREENCAPTURE FROM MLB.COM]

The Hanwha Eagles have signed outfielder Yonathan Perlaza on a one-year deal worth up to $1 million.

The 25-year-old will earn $600,000 in guaranteed salary with a $200,000 signing bonus and up to $200,000 in incentives.

Perlaza will join the Eagles for his freshman KBO season off a successful year in the minor leagues, playing 121 games at the Triple-A level for the Iowa Cubs, an affiliate of the MLB’s Chicago Cubs, during the 2023 season. He batted .284 across the season with 131 hits, 85 RBIs and 23 home runs.

Perlaza, born in Venezuela, has been playing for the Cubs in the minor leagues since 2016, when he spent a season in the Dominican Summer League. He then moved to the rookie-level Arizona Complex League, where he played in 2017 and 2018, and has since climbed up the Class A mantle.

Foreign players in the KBO can only be signed to one-year contracts, with each club allowed to sign up to three players. At least one of those has to be a position player, so teams nearly always sign two foreign pitchers and a slugger, although there’s been a shift toward a wider range of non-pitching roles in recent years.

Foreign player salaries are capped at $1 million in the first year, but can be increased beyond that threshold if a player is re-signed by the same club.

BY MARY YANG AND JIM BULLEY [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]