How Pirates landed another highly touted Asian prospect in Shim

The Pirates' journey to signing Jun-Seok Shim, the No. 10 international prospect in these year's free agent class and the second-highest ranked pitcher, began when scout Fu Chan Chiang found a Youtube video.

It was 2020 and Shim was a freshman in high school. The Youtube videos showed high velocity and a lot of the traits the Pirates look for in an amateur pitcher. The trouble was they couldn't scout him in person because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We had to get creative of how we got looks, get different perspectives on where he is, what he’s been doing and trying to find the best way to capture the progression,” assistant director of player personnel Max Kwan was telling me.

There were plenty of conversations internally about Shim, and when the South Korean border opened in 2021, getting to see him in person quickly became the priority. After a few more years of scouting and building a relationship with Shim, the Pirates won the sweepstakes for his services, beating other major-league clubs and the allure of being the No. 1 overall pick in the Korean Baseball Organization, if he so chose.

"It's been my dream to play in the [United States]," Shim said during his introductory press conference at PNC Park Thursday, as interpreted by the scout that signed him, Jong Hoon Na. "I wanted to pursue my dream to come here and play baseball."

According to a source, the signing bonus is for approximately $750,000. The decision wasn't all about money, though. One main contributing factor is that the Pirates scouts gave a detailed presentation on how he was to train and develop in the system that resonated with him.

And while Shim did not mention it Thursday, the Pirates have also become one of the best recruiters for amateur talent in Asia.

This is the fifth straight international signing period the Pirates have signed a notable amateur free agent from an Asian market. In 2018, it was Ji Hwan Bae out of South Korea. In 2019, it was infielder Tsung-che Cheng out of Taiwan. In 2020 and 2021, they signed right-handers Po-Yu Chen and Hung-Leng Chang, also of Taiwan. (The international signing period was altered due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so the signing of Shim technically counts as a 2022 signing.) If you're willing to extend the reach to the Pacific Rim scouting team, Australian outfielder Solomon Maguire also signed in 2020, giving the Pirates another higher-profile international prospect.

Of that group, Bae made his major-league debut last September and should play a role for years to come with the Pirates. Chen has seen his fastball velocity increase and hold steady in the Pirates' system. Cheng was one of the top performers for the Bradenton Marauders last year, posting a .376 on-base percentage with 33 stolen bases. These signings look like they will pay dividends for the major-league team, something that is far from guaranteed when signing teenagers.

“There’s no specific mandate to do X, Y or Z," Kwan said. "It’s, ‘let’s go find the best players in the world.’ ”

That could be seen in this international signing period in particular, where the Pirates signed 22 players who hail from eight different countries.

"That’s really international," director of international scouting Junior Vizcaino said. "That's what we're about, right? I’m proud of our scouts. We go after what we think are really the best prospects for the Pittsburgh Pirates. We're not signing kids from different countries just to fill a quota. We actually attack kids that we think are going to be good professional players and you're lucky to run into them in different parts of the world. Once we identify that kind of talent, we're not shy about going after them. We have the backing from Ben [Cherington] and Steve [Sanders], that once we do identify those traits, we're free a to go get them."

"You have to be great at it," Cherington said. "Every market's different, and we know that you're signing players international that are younger and further away, so there's risk associated with that. Relative to our competitors, over time, we've got to be getting more players. We need to operate in the upper-end of the industry in what type of talent we're getting over time. Because of the risk, obviously we're not going to hit on every player. We know that. Over time, we've got to get more talent out of that, more than our competitors. We focus on that every day, we look to improve that every day. We're fortunate to have Junior and Max leading the way for us. Feel confident that we're not going to leave a stone unturned. It's critically important of the operation."

But the ability to have that wide net of players to pull from is only part of the equation.

“Scouting the player is one thing," Kwan said. "Knowing the family and building the relationship is totally different.”

In Taiwan, for example, the national population may only be about 23.5 million and the baseball scene may not be as large as other countries, but it's a talented group, with national teams consistently ranking near the top of international amateur tournaments. It's also a close-knit baseball scene, according to Kwan.

When it came to signing Chen in 2020, he was one of the last big free agents to sign in that period. He could have potentially waited for the next signing period to start his professional career, which could have yielded a higher signing bonus when teams' bonuses were replenished and teams will be a bit removed from the financial impact of the pandemic. Instead, he chose the Pirates, partially because of that relationship that started when the Pirates started scouting him when he was 13.

"I had multiple choices at that time," Chen told me while with the Marauders in June. "For me, it was just a feeling that the Pirates were pretty good and would treat me well."

And when players like Chen or Bae start to have success stateside, it gives a positive impression for potential prospects. Add on the impact personnel  like coaches and interpreters make, and the Pirates are building a system in those markets that helps them stand out from other clubs. That plays into landing bigger prospects, like Shim.

“One translator affects one player, and then the next player, then a lot of momentum happens," Kwan said. "The environment and community continue to grow as these acquisitions continue to happen.”

For Shim, Kwan described him as being at the same stage of his development as a high school draft pick. He'll make a brief trip to the Pirates' Dominican Academy in the future and then spend most of his first year in Bradenton, Fla.

While he's in Florida, he'll have his trip with his father to PNC Park Thursday somewhere in the back of his mind. About what is potentially to come.

"I’ve got a long way to go, but I’m very excited to be here," Shim said. "I can’t wait to come here and pitch one day. This whole tour motivated me."