Former Giants outfielder extends stay in KBO with LG Twins

Former SF Giants outfielder and first baseman Austin Dean has just renewed his contract with the LG Twins in Korea, and will spend 2024 with the team in Seoul. His one-year contract is worth up to 1.3M dollars, up from his expected contract in 2023, which was at $700,000. Dean will earn a $300,000 contract deposit, $800,000 annual salary, and $200,000 in performance incentives.

In the 2023 regular season with the LG Twins, he batted .314/.376/.517 in 583 plate appearances. He played in 139 of the league's 144 games, hitting 23 home runs and striking out just 75 times. His performance helped propel the team to the postseason, where the LG Twins won their first title in 29 years.

Dean spent a brief stint with the Giants in 2022, hitting .375/.444/.375 in three games, recording three singles and a walk in nine plate appearances. The rest of his season was spent with the Giants' Triple-A affiliate Sacramento River Cats. Dean batted a .268/.345/.467 in 115 games with the River Cats, with 17 doubles and 17 home runs.

Prior to 2023, where he spent all year with the KBO, Dean appeared in every MLB season since 2018. Over his time in MLB he put together 365 big-league plate appearances with a .228/.286/.390 line, hitting 21 doubles and 11 home runs. In late 2021, the Giants claimed him off waivers and designated him for assignment before spring of 2022. After he cleared waivers, they outrighted him to Triple-A.

Dean was selected in the fourth round of the 2012 MLB draft by the Miami Marlins out of high school, and rose steadily through the team's minor leagues before his first official call-up in 2018. In the majors with the Marlins he struggled, but he dominated minor league pitching. In 2018, Dean hit .326/.397/.475 at Triple-A and played even better in 2019, when he posted a .337/.401/.635 line.

Despite that, the Marlins traded Dean to the St. Louis Cardinals for a minor leaguer prior to the 2020 season. With COVID wiping out 2020's minor-league season, he only appeared in three major league games. In 2021, he didn't fare much better, held back by injuries which only allowed him to appear in 22 minor-league games. 2021 was also his worst season by far in the minors; he hit just .219/.339/.404 at Triple-A with the worst strikeout rate of his career.

Rather than taking a bet on the free-agent market, Dean, then 29, instead chose to sign with the LG Twins, guaranteeing himself more money, and a chance to improve his resume for a potential return to MLB. As perhaps the best hitter on the LG Twins in 2023 across all metrics, eclipsed only in OBP by teammate Chang-ki Hong, he certainly did that. With one Korean Series championship under his belt, he will return to the defending champs in 2024 in pursuit of another.