The veteran of the KBO and CPBL is on a one-year, minor league deal.
The Mets signed their second veteran of the KBO in the last 24 hours, as well as the second Doosan Bear, inking left-handed pitcher Brandon Waddell to a one-year, minor league contract. Waddell, who last pitched in the majors in 2021, found greater success in Asia, and is hoping that success can translate to newfound success stateside.
Waddell was drafted by the Pirates in the 5th round of the 2015 draft, and has appeared in games for four MLB teams—the Pirates, Cardinals, Twins, and Orioles—and last played in affiliated ball when he pitched 30 innings for the Cardinals’ Triple-A team in Memphis in 2022. After that, Waddell signed with the Korean Baseball Organization’s Doosan Bears, who he appeared in parts of three seasons for. He also made 14 starts for the Rakuten Monkeys of the Chinese Professional Baseball League in 2023.
In 43 starts in the KBO, Waddell pitched to a 2.98 ERA with a 3.31 strikeout to walk ratio. In 75 innings in 2024, Waddell only walked 11 and gave up three home runs while striking out 75. He only made 14 starts in 2024 due to a rotator cuff injury.
The Mets must like the changes that Waddell picked up overseas, and he will likely act as a minor league starter/swing man in the majors, but continues David Stearns’s propensity for looking to the KBO for talent, as Thomas Henderson noted in his Jared Young piece yesterday.
While the deal was originally announced as a major league deal, the terms have been corrected.