The LG Twins of the Korea Baseball Organization announced the signing of veteran right-hander Carlos Carrasco for the remainder of the 2026 season (link via Jee-ho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency). The ACES client will head overseas and secure a $360K guarantee for the remainder of the season. He’ll take the roster spot of another former big leaguer, reliever Yacksel Rios, who was released this week. Carrasco joins the reigning 2025 KBO champs, who currently sit third place, trailing the KT Wiz by two games and the current KBO-leading Samsung Lions by three games.
Carrasco’s move to the KBO ends perhaps the longest-running DFA carousel in history. He’s been designated for assignment by the Braves seven times in the past calendar year, each time opting for free agency and — until now — quickly re-signing on a new minor league contract. This time around, Carrasco will take a guaranteed payday that tops what he’d have earned closing out the season in Triple-A. The move to South Korea also affords Carrasco a steady rotation spot and the chance to experience a title chase in a new setting during the late stages of his career.
The 39-year-old Carrasco spent years as one of the steadiest and most productive starters in Major League Baseball. From 2014-22, Carrasco pitched 1209 2/3 innings with a 3.59 ERA, a 27.2% strikeout rate and a 6% walk rate. Though he somewhat shockingly never made an All-Star team in that time, Carrasco had a fourth place Cy Young finish along the way (2017) and twice signed lucrative extensions with Cleveland. He’s won 112 big league games, pitched more than 1700 innings in the majors, and thrice been a member of a postseason rotation (all with Cleveland).
Carrasco’s most recent healthy and productive big league season came in 2022 with the Mets. He’s since bounced between the Mets, Guardians, Yankees and Braves but stumbled to a 6.33 ERA in a total of 256 major league innings across three-plus seasons. However, Carrasco has been terrific in Triple-A Gwinnett this season, logging a 2.55 ERA in 35 1/3 innings.
While Carrasco has frequently been a go-to call-up for Atlanta with all their pitching injuries this season, it’s fair to wonder whether his major league opportunities might have soon begun to dwindle. Atlanta recently activated Hurston Waldrep from the injured list. AJ Smith-Shawver is on a rehab assignment and nearing the end of his rehab window. The Braves are hopeful that both Spencer Schwellenbach and Spencer Strider will be back before season’s end, too, and Atlanta of course is on the lookout for rotation help as part of a wide-net approach to this year’s trade deadline, which looms just 12 days out on the horizon.
It’s a mild surprise to see Rios released. He’s pitched 17 1/3 innings for the KBO’s Twins and held opponents to seven runs (3.63 ERA) on 16 hits and seven walks with 17 strikeouts. As Yoo notes, Rios was sitting just under 98 mph on his four-seamer and generally pitching well. However, the Twins have been forced into several bullpen games as of late due to shaky rotation depth, so they’re swapping out one of their two spots allocated for foreign players with this Rios-for-Carrasco gambit, in hopes of solidifying the starting staff.
It’s certainly possible that Rios, who pitched well in the KBO and had a decent stint in the Cubs system earlier this season (4.24 ERA in 17 Triple-A innings, plus 1 2/3 scoreless MLB frames) will get a look with another big league club now that he’s a free agent, though he might have to settle for a minor league deal.
