Right-hander Pedro Avila joined the SSG Landers of the Korea Baseball Organization in July after opting out of his minor-league contract with the Guardians. That could have set him up for a return to stateside ball this offseason. Instead, he’ll be sticking around in the KBO. Avila has signed a two-year contract extension with the Landers, according to Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase. The terms of the new deal have not been reported yet.
Avila, who will turn 30 in January, is no stranger to pitching overseas. He spent the 2025 season with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, delivering a 4.04 earned run average in 15 appearances (14 starts) with a 17.8% strikeout rate. Avila’s ERA was higher than the NPB average, although his 3.09 FIP was more favorable. He then signed a non-roster deal with the Guardians for 2026 but failed to make the team out of spring training. Avila re-upped on a new minor league deal and stuck around at Triple-A Columbus, struggling badly with run prevention (7.50 ERA) and free passes (11.5% walk rate) in a 60-inning sample.
To his credit, Avila fared much better with the Landers. In 93 2/3 innings over 14 starts, he posted a dominant 1.44 ERA and 63.1% ground ball rate. Among KBO pitchers with at least 80 innings, Avila had the lowest ERA, lowest HR/9 rate (0.10), and eighth-best strikeout rate (25.5%). With his still-recent poor production in affiliated ball, he may have had to settle for a minor league deal this offseason even with the strong showing for the Landers. Thus, it makes sense for Avila to continue re-establishing himself in the KBO while locking in a higher salary than he would have been able to earn stateside.
It’s not uncommon for fringe MLB arms to pitch overseas for a few years, then return to affiliated ball on a guaranteed deal. The Landers experienced that pretty recently with right-hander Drew Anderson. He pitched a scattered 44 1/3 big league innings from 2017-21 before going to NPB from 2022-23 and then the Landers in the KBO from 2024-25. Anderson had a serviceable 3.89 ERA in his first year with the Landers before lowering it to 2.25 in 30 starts in 2025. He parlayed that into a one-year, $7MM deal with Detroit this offseason and delivered a 3.67 ERA in 108 innings as a swingman. At present, Anderson stands a good chance of sticking with the Tigers on a $10MM club option.
Compared to Anderson, Avila has more of a big league track record. He pitched 146 1/3 innings with the Padres and Guardians from 2019-24, mostly in the latter two years. In that time, Avila had a 3.51 ERA, a 23.8% strikeout rate, and an above-average 49.2% ground ball rate. If he remains effective as a starter over the next two years, he could feasibly parlay that into a $7-10MM guarantee in the Majors for the 2029 season, when he will be 32 years old.
Photo courtesy of Vincent Carchietta, Imagn Images
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