Eric Peddy of the NC Dinos, who was named the MVP of the KBO League along with his all-time performance in the 2023 season, is expected to eventually return to the U.S. Major League Baseball. In fact, he could not win the "money fight" with the Major League club in the first place.
Mark Feinsand, a reporter for MLB.com , the official website of the U.S. Major League Baseball (MLB), quoted a source on the 5th (Korea Standard Time) and said on his personal SNS, "It is known that Eric Peddy is on the verge of signing a contract with a team that has not yet been specified. The contract period is two years, and the annual salary is more than 5 million dollars (about 6.5 billion won) (Erik Fedde is trusted to be a deal with an unspecified team, per source. He's looking like a two-year deal worth more than $5 million per year)."
If Feynsand's remarks lead to a true story, Peddy will return to the Major League where he played after being treated for more than 10 million U.S. dollars over a two-year contract period. Peddy received 2.15 million dollars in annual salary from the Washington Nationals in the 2022 season, which translates into a two-year pay double. Once again, he has achieved the myth of retro-exporting the KBO.
For Pedi, the Korean stage eventually gave him a big foothold to return to the Major League. It was December last year. The NC Dinos announced that they had signed a contract worth 1 million U.S. dollars (down payment of 200,000 dollars and annual salary of 800,000 dollars), saying that they had acquired Pedi as a foreign pitcher who will join them for the 2023 season. "He is a right-handed pitcher who is 193 centimeters tall and weighs 92 kilograms, and he throws fastballs with an average speed of 149 kilometers (maximum of 153 kilometers), as well as two-seam, cutter, curveball, and changeup. His ability to induce grounders based on his stable ball control and various pitches is considered to be his strength," the NC Dinosaurs said.
What NC expected when recruiting Pedi was his ability to manage games based on various pitches and a sense of stability. NC's general manager Lim Seon-nam highly appreciated Pedi's ability to induce two-seam fastballs, cutters, curve changeups, and grounders based on his strong pitching. And this foreign pitcher became the hero who dominated the KBO league by playing for just one season. When he joined NC, Pedi said through his club, "I played with Eric Thames (former NC) in Washington in 2020, and I had a high opinion of the KBO league, and I was able to hear many things about it. I have high expectations for Korea," and he showed off his skills to his heart's content.
Pedi was selected by the Washington Nationals as the 18th overall pick in the first round of the 2014 rookie draft from Nevada State University. After making his big league debut in 2017, Pedi continued to play for Washington. Pedi played in 102 games (88 starts) in the Major League and pitched in 454 ⅓ innings, recording 21 wins and 33 losses with an ERA of 5.41. More than anything else, when Washington won the World Series in 2019, he was the fifth starter in his team, and he also served as the fifth starter in the 2022 season just before coming to Korea. In the Minor League, he played in 89 games (71 starts) in his career, and posted a solid 23 wins, 19 losses and an ERA of 3.69 in 390 ⅓ innings.
Having entered the Korean league, Peddy started to display his power from the beginning of the season. He showed off his prowess as an "untouchable" pitcher with four wins, one loss and an ERA of 0.47 in six games in the first month of the season. Consequently, Peddy started 30 games this season and recorded 20 wins, six losses (winning rate of 0.769) and an ERA of 2.00, establishing himself as the all-time foreign pitcher. While throwing 180 ⅓ innings in total, he pitched a total of 137 hits (nine homers), 35 walks, 209 strikeouts, 46 runs (40 earned), WHIP (allowed on-base percentage per inning), 0.95 and a 0.207 hit percentage, while pitching in quality starts (less than three earned runs in six innings as a starter). He ranked first in both the ERA, multiple wins and strikeouts (209), achieving the triple crown. It was the first time in 37 years that he had 20 wins and 200 strikeouts at the same time since Sun Dong-yeol (Haedong) in 1986. In addition, Peddy was the first foreign player to have 20 wins and 200 strikeouts at the same time. Previously, only Sun Dong-yeol (1986, 1989, 1990 and 1991), Ryu Hyun-jin (2006) and Yoon Seok-min (2011) achieved triple crowns.
Based on such a strong performance, Pedi won the honor of winning five times at the KBO Awards by holding the ERA, multiple wins, strikeouts, and the new pitcher's defense award and MVP this year. It was the eighth time in KBO league history that a foreign player won the MVP of the regular season. Earlier, Tyrone Woods (1998), Daniel Rios (2007, Doosan Bears), Eric Thames (2015, NC), Dustin Nippert (2016), Josh Lindblom (2019, Doosan), Mel Rojas Jr. (2020, KT Wiz), and Ariel Miranda (2021, Doosan) won MVP as foreign players
