The Texas Rangers had an underwhelming 2025 MLB season. They hung oaround for the while, helped by having baseball’s best defense and leading the majors in ERA, but could not keep up with the streaking Seattle Mariners in the second half, lost a painfully large number of close games, and finished with an even .500 record that belied better underlying metrics. And now, that pitching staff is being broken up, with a member of that pitching staff taking a large contract to change country.
Caleb Boushley, a reliever who appeared in 40 games with the Rangers last season, has signed a $1 million contract to move to Korea and play for a team called the KT Wiz. Considering the MLB minimum salary pays only $760,000, the contract is a big one for a player who, despite bringing major league experience to the KBO, does so without much in the way of major league success with him. His time with the Rangers made up almost all of his MLB experience to date – and it did not go brilliantly.
Finally A Rangers Regular
Boushley made his major-league debut with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2023, a couple of days before his 30th birthday, and joined the Rangers system last November after signing a minor league deal. In between, he spent a short amount of time in the Minnesota Twins organization, but he had pitched in only three major league games and 6.1 innings across his time with both the Brewers and the Twins combined. It was only with the Rangers that he finally became a regular MLB player, at least for one season.
After spending almost five years as a Triple-A starter, Boushley – upon being called up to the Rangers’s 40-man roster back in April after only two AAA starts – was moved to the bullpen at the major league level. It was his first time out of the bullpen since before the pandemic, and perhaps the shift in role combined with the step up in level to be too tough of a combination to overcome.
Boushley would made 25 appearances for the Rangers mostly in a clean-up role, with one spot start thrown in and one save opportunity, which he converted. Across them, he recorded a 6.02 ERA with 41 strikeouts across 43.1 innings pitched, yielding higher strikeout numbers than usual and exhibiting the decent control that he had long since had at the AAA level, but finding that his 92 mph sinker – his main pitch – very rarely beat the major leaguer’s bat. The Wix will be hoping it can get by KBO hitters slightly better.
The Benefits Of Moving To Korea
Boushley’s move to the KBO signing reflects a growing pattern in which pitchers with limited major-league opportunities seek larger roles and greater financial certainty overseas, in both Japan and Korea. Former New York Yankees reliever Nick Nelson, for example, has been able to turn a fairly average major league career into Japanese stardom, and excellent pay days to match it.
At the reported numbers, Boushleyâs agreement reportedly falls into the upper range for first-year foreign pitching contracts in the league, which typically include a base salary plus incentives tied to innings pitched and games started. The structure allows teams to manage cost risks, and it allows players to secure income levels that can exceed what they would receive on minor-league deals. $900,000 base salary with $100,000 in incentives, as Boushley is said to have received, comfortably outstrips the remuneration in another season of AAAA-ball.
For KT Wiz, the appeal is likely to be more on what he did as a starter. Boushley has thrown at least 100 innings in four different minor league seasons, reaching a career high of 138.2 innings in 2022. His walk rate at Triple-A has remained stable, averaging 3.0 per nine innings over the last three seasons, and his strikeout rate has ranged from 8.0 to 8.5 per nine during the same period. Teams in the KBO often prioritize pitchers who can provide predictable strike-throwing and maintain health across a 144-game schedule, and Boushleyâs mostly injury-free history suffices.
Boushleyâs move also fits a broader statistical trend among recent KBO imports; over the last five seasons, the majority of foreign pitchers signed by KBO clubs logged fewer than 20 MLB innings before their arrival. What has separated the successful transitions from the burnouts has been command stability and durability rather than standout velocity or strikeout totals; with a sinking fastball generally in the low-90s, a secondary mix built around a slider and changeup, and a history of handling full starting workloads in the minors, Boushley fits the bill. The Rangers, with respect, will have been hoping to not need 43 more innings from him next season; the Wiz, by contrast, will want that several times over.
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