The Toronto Blue Jays announced the signing of Hyun-Jin Ryu to a four-year, $80 million contract and introduced the left-hander on Friday. It officially marked the end of his tenure with the Los Angeles Dodgers after seven seasons.
Ryu joined the Dodgers from the Korea Baseball Organization, agreeing to a six-year, $36 million deal the day before Zack Greinke was also brought into the fold. They combined with Clayton Kershaw to lead a formidable Dodgers rotation for multiple seasons.
However, Ryu’s career also entailed missing the entire 2015 season because of surgery to repair a torn labrum in his throwing shoulder. Elbow trouble and an eventual operation limited him to just one start in 2016.
Ryu struggled the following year but pitched well in 2018; even that came with a significant groin strain that broke up the season. After accepting the qualifying offer from the Dodgers, he put together a Cy Young Award-caliber campaign and again became a free agent.
Upon finalizing his deal with the Blue Jays, Ryu posted a thank you to Dodgers fans on his Instagram account.
The 32-year-old went 54-33 with a 2.98 ERA, 3.32 FIP and 1.16 WHIP in 126 games (125 starts) over the seven seasons spent with the Dodgers (including 2015 lost to injury). This past season Ryu earned a first career All-Star Game selection and led the Majors with a 2.32 ERA.
He became the first South Korean born pitcher to start in the Midsummer Classic and only because of some regression after the break, finished second in NL Cy Young Award voting. Great as he was on the mound, Ryu’s biggest highlight easily was hitting a home run at Dodger Stadium.
With Ryu no longer an option, the Dodgers’ search for starting pitching figures to center on the trade market. A pursuit of Gerrit Cole fell short, and one for Madison Bumgarner never quite appeared to generate much traction before he signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
L.A. could re-sign Rich Hill, but that would be more for depth and during the second half of the 2020 season and potential playoffs. Hill is not expected to pitch before June due to his recovery from an operation to re-attach the torn portion of his UCL.
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