The LG Twins of the Korea Baseball Organization announced the signing of the 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 through the remainder of the season. He will take the roster spot of another former big leaguer, reliever Yacksel Rioswho was released this week. Carrasco joins the 2025 KBO champions, who currently sit in third place, trailing the KT Wiz by two games and the KBO-leading Samsung Lions by three games.
Carrasco’s move to the KBO ends perhaps the longest DFA carousel in history. He has been designated for assignment by the Braves seven times in the past calendar year, each time choosing to be offered free agency and — so far — quickly re-signed to a new minor league contract. This time, Carrasco will take a guaranteed payday that exceeds what he earned when he closed out the season in Triple-A. The move to South Korea also gives Carrasco a flexible environment and the opportunity to find a title chase in a new place during the later stages of his career.
Carrasco, 39, has spent years as one of the most consistent and 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. Although he never made an All-Star team during that time, Carrasco had a fourth-place Cy Young finish there (2017) and signed two lucrative extensions with Cleveland. He won 112 big league games, pitched more than 1700 innings in the majors, and three times was a member of the postseason rotation (all with Cleveland).
Carrasco’s last healthy and productive major league season came in 2022 with the Mets. He has since bounced between the Mets, Guardians, Yankees and Braves but has stumbled to a 6.33 ERA in 256 major league innings over three-plus seasons. However, Carrasco has been excellent at Triple-A Gwinnett this season, posting a 2.55 ERA in 35 1/3 innings.
Although Carrasco has been a regular call-up to Atlanta with all of his injuries this season, it’s fair to wonder if his big league chances may be starting to dwindle soon. Atlanta has just been activated Hurston Waldrep on the injured list. AJ Smith-Shawver he is in the process of rehabbing and nearing the end of his rehab window. The Braves are hoping for both Spencer Schwellenbach again Spencer Strider will return again before the end of the season, and Atlanta is already looking for rotation help as part of a broader approach to this year’s trade deadline, which is just 12 days away.
It’s amazing to see Rios released. He 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 noted, Rios was sitting just under 98 mph on his four-seamer and generally threw well. However, the Twins have been forced into several bullpen games of late due to depth changes, so they replaced one of the two outfield spots with this Rios-for-Carrasco gambit, hoping to bolster the starting lineup.
It’s certainly possible that Rios, who played well in the KBO and had a good reputation in the Cubs system earlier this season (4.24 ERA in 17 Triple-A innings, and 1 2/3 MLB scoreless frames) will get a look with another big league club now that he’s a free agent, though he may have to get a minor league deal.
