autre scooter Toronto closes out PS with 2nd straight loss, Ryu ends 'four-year ride'

[sportstotomen]

0-2 loss to Minnesota in WC second leg
Liu out of contract and looking for a new team

Toronto ended its 2023 Major League Baseball (MLB) postseason schedule with a second straight loss. It also ended the season of Ryu Hyun-jin (36-photo), who returned from an elbow injury.

Toronto fell 0-2 in Game 2 of the best-of-three American League (AL) wild-card series against Minnesota on Friday at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. Toronto, which went 1-3 in Game 1 the previous day, scored just one run in the two games and was swept out of the Fall Classic. Ryu, who was left off the roster for the series, ended his season without pitching a game in the postseason.

Now the spotlight is on Ryu's future. Ryu, who signed a four-year, $80 million contract with Toronto ahead of the 2020 season, is a free agent after Toronto's elimination. It is unlikely that Toronto, with its abundance of starting pitching, will sign Ryu to a new contract.

As a result, Ryu is likely to find a new team in the MLB that needs him. After undergoing elbow ligament splicing surgery (Tommy John surgery) last year, Ryu returned in August of this year and went 3-3 with a 3.46 ERA in 11 appearances. For a team in need of a veteran starting pitcher, a short-term deal of one or two years is worth considering.

Ryu has yet to publicly discuss his future plans. However, Ben Nicholson-Smith , a reporter for Canadian sports outlet Sportsnet, wrote on his X (formerly Twitter) that "Hyun-jin Ryu has expressed his desire to sign with an MLB team."

While unlikely, a return to Korean professional baseball is one option. “I want to return to Hanwha when I can pitch well,” Ryu said earlier this year while rehabbing. He came to the MLB via the posting system (closed competitive bidding) when he signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2013, so if he returns to the KBO, he would have to return to his original team, Hanwha. 토토사이트