The reason why the Toronto Blue Jays recruited Ryu Hyun-jin for 4 years and 80 million dollars in 2020 was not simply expecting an ace role. He hoped to play the role of an ace as well as a mentor to young pitchers at the same time. In other words, the ransom of 80 million dollars included the educational expenses needed to nurture promising players.
In fact, in the first spring camp after transferring in 2020, Ryu Hyun-jin was intent on passing on his main weapon, the cutter, to Trent Thornton and Ryan Boruki, who were left-handed prospects in his team. The cutter was a special move that allowed Ryu Hyun-jin to become a Cy Young-class pitcher. In particular, Boruki, who had difficulties installing cutters at the time, showed enthusiasm for actively approaching Ryu Hyun-jin. Boruki was an avid student of ‘Hyunjin School’.
However, these efforts did not lead to any results. In the end, Boruki was unable to equip the cutter. According to Baseball Savant, even after 2020, when he met Ryu Hyun-jin, Boruki could not throw a cutter.
Boruki, who was nominated in the 15th round in the 2012 rookie draft, debuted in 2018 and started 17 games, leaving a record of 4 wins, 6 losses and an average ERA of 3.87, emerging as a promising left-hander for the Toronto mound. However, his debut season was the peak. He pitched in 2 games in 2019 before turning to the bullpen starting in 2020. He had an average ERA of 2.70 with 1 win and 1 loss in 21 games, and only an ERA of 4.94 with 3 wins and 1 loss in 24 games in 2021.
Eventually, during the 2022 season, Toronto went through the transfer nomination process and was traded to the Seattle Mariners. In Seattle, he recorded 2 wins in 21 games and an ERA of 4.26, but was released after half a season. Ahead of this season, he signed a minor league contract with the Chicago Cubs and sought a comeback. He was expected to show his competitiveness in the Cubs’ poor left-handed bullpen.메이저놀이터
But he didn’t do well with the Cubs’ Triple-A Iowa Cubs this year either. He pitched in eight games and won one, but his earned run average reached 12.00 (12 earned runs in 9 innings). He was eventually released from the Cubs. Still, Boruki got another chance to start anew. He signs a minor contract with Bae Ji-hwan’s team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, and tries to make a comeback.
‘MLB Trade Rumors’ said, ‘It’s been a rough few years for Boruki. Even when he struggled in 2022, Sinker’s average velocity was 95.1 mph with a respectable 12 percent swing-and-miss rate. “I threw a sinker and slider out of reliance on a changeup, which helped raise my groundball rate to 54.3 percent,” he said. Garcia is on the 60-day injured list. Jose Hernandez, who was selected in the Rule 5 draft, has been the only left-handed option lately. It won’t be an immediate addition to the bullpen options, but Pittsburgh has added an experienced option to watch in Triple-A,’ he explained the reason for Boruki’s acquisition. /