Reese Kaplan --- An Under the Radar First Base Option to Consider

So for all of the brouhaha over the prospect of luring Teruaki Sato to the Mets and converting him to play first base it would seem that the alternatives are not exactly exciting.  Many available Jared Young platoon partners are available but they are not star quality by any stretch.  

Some might make the case that World Series winner Jake Bauers is a late bloomer and a lock to hit 25-30 HRs for his new employer but that signing would warrant well over $23 million in salary for one good year and a draft pick compensation to the Brewers who extended him a QO.  That seems an awfully high price to pay for a career .223 hitter who will be 31 for the 2027 season.  

The others on the list include decent but not stellar players like Ty France.  Josh Bell is available as a free agent but he’s not had a great answer either.  He’s been splitting time between 1B and DH.  You can pencil him in for over 20 HRs and a .256 bating average but the Twins felt he was not worth his $10 million option going into his age 34 season.  

One recent Pacific posting was announced by the Korean team called the Hanwha Eagles in Daejeon.  Seeking to transition to MLB the Eagles made slugger Si Hwan Roh available to interested bidders.  Unlike Sato, Roh is pretty much flying under the radar.  Let’s take a brief look at him.

Now at age 25 Roh has been playing for Hanwha since debuting in 2019 as an 18 year old rookie.  

Twice during this tenure he eclipsed the 30 HR mark and interestingly unlike most power hitters he does not fan at an alarming rate.  

This past season his worst mark with 147 Ks, but to accompany that he hit 29 HRs and drove in 96 while hitting .283.  

While he’s primarily been a third baseman, he’s also logged 84 games playing first and surprisingly 42 games at shortstop.  At 6 feet tall and 211 pounds he doesn’t profile on paper as a middle infielder.  His high water mark in stolen bases was in 2025 with 14.  Defensively the best aspect of his game is his throwing arm but one metrics site has him at a D- for how he handles his glove.  Moving him to 1B or DH would likely be appropriate.

So what would he cost?  Right now Roh is in the middle of an 11 year contract worth $23 million in US dollars.  At a current rate of just over $2 million per season it would not take a major investment to lure him over to the more lucrative and high profile major league baseball.

Everyone knows that taking chances on unproven ballplayers from the Asian leagues is always fraught with some trepidation upon adjustment periods and better daily pitching to battle.  Given his young age you would think he would still have room to improve his game and matching his current contract over a shorter period of time could prove a starting point for negotiations.  

If you proposed paying him $6 million per year for 4 years it would not bankrupt the team and would ensure he had a long term shot at performing in MLB.  Of course he would want more money but he’s nowhere near what Sato would command.