Jung Ho Kang may not be out of work for much longer.
Joe Alexander of 210GameDay.com shared photos of Kang on the field with the Brewers' Triple-A affiliate, the San Antonio Missions:
Infield practice at Wolff Stadium before Thursday's San Antonio Missions game. pic.twitter.com/gzpDc65iqe
— Joe Alexander (@JoeAlexander210) August 16, 2019
After the pictures of Kang in San Antonio made the rounds on social media, Brewers general manager David Stearns told Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the Brewers have not actually signed Kang to a contract, and that there are "things to settle" first.
#Brewers have NOT signed INF Jung Ho Kang to a minor-league deal. At least, not yet. He is with @missionsmilb working out with hopes of getting deal done but GM David Stearns said there are things to settle. So, we shall see.
— Tom (@Haudricourt) August 16, 2019
The Pirates designated Kang for assignment on Aug. 2 after Kang was batting .169/.222/.395 with 10 home runs, seven doubles and a triple in 185 plate appearances.
“We saw the hands. We saw the power. Unfortunately, the year and a half away from competitive baseball just made it very tough,” Neal Huntington said two days later. “The hitting consistency became his biggest challenge. He may never get it back, or maybe (with) a sequence of consistent at-bats, he gets it back and somebody will find themselves a good player.”
If Kang were to return to the KBO, he'd still be property of the Kiwoom Heroes because he left the KBO via the transfer system and not as a free agent. Returning to the KBO isn't really an option, though. Since the KBO increased their penalties for drunk driving this year, Kang would reportedly be facing a suspension of "more than three years" if he returned.
Kang was arrested in December 2016 after fleeing the scene of a DUI crash in South Korea. It was Kang's third DUI incident there, after previously getting caught drunk driving in August 2009 and May 2011 while Kang was still playing for the Heroes. He was never disciplined by the KBO for his first two DUIs, because they were kept secret at the time.
