The Mets will look elsewhere while the Bucs work out a contract with their newest player.
This won't come as a huge surprise to Mets fans, but our team did not win the Jung-Ho Kang sweepstakes. Instead, the Pirates won, which is kind of surprising. Pittsburgh was supposedly set with a middle infield featuring not only Jordy Mercer and Neil Walker, but newcomer Sean Rodriguez as well.
Still, the Buccos felt the upside of Kang was too much to resist and won the right to negotiate with a bid of just over $5 million. Now Pittsburgh has 30 days to come to terms with Kang, who is expected to earn a contract of three or four years paying around $5 million per year.
Although Kang hit a monstrous .356/.459/.739 with 40 home runs for the Nexen Heroes of KBO last season, it's up for debate how well those figures will translate over to the majors. It's also unknown if the 27-year-old will stick at shortstop or if he'll have to play second base in the big leagues.
For more on Kang, check out our own Steve Sypa's international free agent profile on him.