For the best part of 18 months, Cody Ponce was a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. And across the 2020 and 2021 MLB seasons, he pitched in 55.1 big league innings for them.
So far, those outings represent the entirety of Ponce’s career in the majors. At least, in the American majors. Since leaving the Pirates organization over the winter of 2021, however, Ponce has been on a tour of Asia – and after a three-year stint in Japan, he moved last winter to the Korean Basketball League, where he has become the best pitcher in the nation.
Cody Ponce, The Mike Mussina Of Korea
At the time of writing, Ponce – a member of the second-placed Hanwha Eagles – leads the KBO League in multiple major pitching metrics: wins, ERA, strikeouts, WHIP and opponentsâ batting average. The 31-year-old right hander has pitched to a 1.85 ERA and 0.93 WHIP, and, until last week, had a perfect win-loss record.
Across 174.2 innings on the season to date, with one game to go, Ponce has recorded 243 strikeouts, and given up only 40 bases on balls going the other way. And these gaudy numbers come after what has been considered to be a mid-season slump, including giving up four earned runs in five innings in his most recent outing.
Earlier this month, Ponce passed the single-season threshold of 228 strikeouts, surpassing Ariel Miranda‘s previous best 225 to set a new KBO League single-season strikeout record, a lead he has only built on since then. Back in May, he struck out 18 in a nine-inning game, which itself was another KBO record. The accolades keep coming, and the records keep falling. Where once he was an innings-filler Major Leaguer, Ponce has moved across the world and find himself to be the Justin Verlander of the place.
Ponce’s Stunted Pirates Stint
Ponce joined the Pirates in July 2019 from the Milwaukee Brewers in a one-for-one trade for Jordan Lyles, and would start three games for them in the CoVid-affected 2020 season. He started well, pitching to a 3.18 ERA and a .200 batting average against in that short stint, but those numbers shot up to 7.04/.344 in an longer bullpen role in 2021, and having been drafted back in 2015, free agency came around before he had time to establish his Major League credentials.
Korean baseball’s salaries do not quite get to the levels of Major League Baseball, and although Ponce is said to have signed a one year, $1 million contract to sign with Hanwha – including a $200,000 signing bonus – it is not even a top ten salary in the league, according to at least one source, Nevertheless, in terms of returns on investment, Ponce has been the best in the nation.
From a journeyman player just trying to find his next gig, Ponce has in fact delivered one of the most dominant individual seasons in KBO history. What began as a low-profile foreign signing has turned into a record-shattering campaign, that has placed Ponce firmly at the center of Korean baseballâs spotlight, and given the Eagles the chance at their first Korean Series title since 1999. Not a bad redemption campaign for a fringe Major Leaguer who could not even stick in the bullpen of a 101-loss Pirates team.
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