Blue Jays free agent target: Si-Hwan Roh

Early in the 2026-27 off-season, four players from overseas have been posted.

We’ve already covered three of them in these free agent target articles, Teruaki Satō, Kaima Taira, and Hiromi Itoh. All three players have played their entire careers in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball and have a 45-day window to sign, though it’s technically a 30-day window because of the incoming lockout.

So far, infielder Si-Hwan Roh is the lone player based in South Korea who has been posted. Unlike Japan, the window for players posted from South Korea is just 30 days, but that doesn’t factor into this off-season with the lockout looming.

That begs the question, is Roh a fit for the Toronto Blue Jays?

Si-Hwan Roh’s profile

Roh has spent his entire career with Korean Baseball Organization’s Hanwha Eagles, the same team that former Blue Jay Hyun Jin Ryu plays for.

Beginning his career in 2019, Roh struggled over his first two seasons before breaking out in 2021. In 107 games that season, the third baseman slashed. 271/.386/.466 with 18 home runs for a 131 wRC+ in 458 plate appearances. His power production took a step back in 2022, hitting just six long-balls in 490 plate appearances, but he’s been a consistent power threat the past four seasons.

Roh has hit 29 or more home runs in three of his last four seasons, and even in the season he didn’t hit 29 long-balls (2024), he still went deep 24 times. In 2025, he hit career-high 32 home runs, slashing .260/.354/.497 for a 128 wRC+ in 571 plate appearances.

The 25-year-old was equally as productive in 2026, slashing .283/.360/.505 with 29 long-balls in 571 plate appearances, with 21 doubles and a 127 wRC+. It’s worth noting that his BB% dropped to just 8.9 percent and his strikeout rate jumped to 25.7 percent, the worst marks since his 2020 season.

That places in comparison to his best season in the KBO, his 2023 season. In 131 games three years ago, Roh slashed .298/.388/.541 with 31 home runs in 595 plate appearances. On top of the 31 blasts, he hit a career-best 30 doubles and a triple, giving him a 157 wRC+. He also finished with a 12.4 BB% and 19.8 K%.

There are a few concerns with Roh, though. First off is his fit, as he has mainly played third base throughout his career. Since 2023, the hot corner has basically been the only position he’s played all season. While he’s capable of playing first base, he hasn’t played significant innings there since 2022.

The Blue Jays already have their power hitting third baseman, as Kazuma Okamoto has the position locked up for the next three seasons. Okamoto is capable of playing in the outfield, playing 15 games in left field in 2024, but he didn’t play an inning there after joining the Blue Jays.

Another issue is that offensive numbers in the KBO haven’t translated well in Major League Baseball these past few seasons. 

Sung-mun Song was the best Korean position player posted last season, slashing .315/.387/.530 with 26 home runs in 646 plate appearances in his 2025 KBO season. After signing with the Padres, he slashed just .238/.302/.347 with a home run in 154 plate appearances for a 58 wRC+, and didn’t do much better in Triple-A.

Hyeseong Kim was posted and signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers during the 2024-25 off-season, but has also struggled to find success at the big league level. The other two notable players signed from the KBO since 2020, Jung Hoo Lee and Ha-Seong Kim, have had a few league-average seasons each. 

Ha-Seong Kim’s 2023 was the best of any MLB season of these four players mentioned, slashing .260/.351/.398 with 17 home runs in 626 plate appearances for a 110 wRC+, good for a 4.2 wRC+. A big reason for that high of a fWAR is Gold Glove-winning defence at shortstop.

There have been players signed out of Korea to find success in MLB. I’d say Ha-Seong Kim has found success, while others like Shin-Soo Choo and Ji Man Choi had solid MLB careers, and Jung Ho Kang had two good seasons in the mid-2010s. 

Maybe Roh bucks the trend of KBO signings struggling to translate the bat at the big league level in the 2020s. However, the Blue Jays aren’t in the market for a third baseman, so it just doesn’t make sense for them.