Cody Ponce of the Hanwha Eagles poses with the trophy after winning the Korea Baseball Organization regular-season MVP award during the awards ceremony at Lotte Hotel World in Seoul, Nov. 24. Yonhap
Cody Ponce, the Korean baseball MVP in 2025, has signed with the Toronto Blue Jays.
Team sources told Yonhap News Agency on Wednesday that Ponce is joining the Blue Jays, confirming earlier reports out of Toronto and the United States stating that the right-hander had agreed to a three-year deal worth $30 million.
Ponce was named the MVP of the 2025 Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) season last month after winning the Triple Crown with 17 wins, a 1.89 ERA and a league-record 252 strikeouts in 180 2/3 innings for the Hanwha Eagles.
Ponce has 20 major league games under his belt, all of them with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2020 and 2021. Before joining the Eagles for the 2025 season, Ponce had pitched in Japan for three seasons.
The 31-year-old now joins the reigning American League (AL) pennant winners whose rotation will be fronted by the incumbent ace Kevin Gausman, former Cy Young Award winner Shane Bieber, and a big offseason signing Dylan Cease, the 2022 AL Cy Young runner-up with five straight 200-strikeout seasons.
The Blue Jays also have a rising young star in Trey Yesavage, who thrived in the team’s World Series run despite limited regular-season experience and whose workload will likely be monitored closely next year. Two veteran starters from the 2025 season, Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt, are both free agents. Another longtime starter, Jose Berrios, was injured late in the 2025 season and did not pitch in the postseason.
The Blue Jays employed another former KBO pitcher, Eric Lauer, as a swingman in 2025.
Earlier in the day, multiple U.S. reports said another Eagles ace from the 2025 season, Ryan Weiss, had signed with the Houston Astros.
Citing team and league sources, reports said Weiss will make $2.6 million in his one-year major league contract and could make over $7 million through 2027 if a club option is exercised for a second season.
Hanwha Eagles starter Ryan Weiss pitches against the LG Twins during Game 4 of the Korean Series at Daejeon Hanwha Life Ballpark in the central city of Daejeon, Oct. 30. Yonhap
Weiss, who turns 29 next Wednesday, has never previously pitched in the majors.
He was selected in the fourth round by the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2018, when Deric Ladnier, the current senior director of amateur scouting for the Astros, was in charge of Arizona’s drafts.
Weiss had reached as high as Triple-A before taking his talent to Asia, first to Taiwan in 2023 and then to the KBO during the 2024 season.
As a temporary injury replacement for Ricardo Sanchez, Weiss thrived in his limited opportunities, going 5-5 with a 3.76 ERA and recording 98 strikeouts in 91 2/3 innings.
It earned him a full contract for the 2025 season, and Weiss emerged as one of the most dominant starters in the KBO. He went 16-5 with a 2.87 ERA, plus 207 strikeouts in 178 2/3 innings. He finished third overall in wins and innings pitched, fourth in strikeouts and sixth in ERA.
Weiss and Ponce became the first pair of teammates to each top 200 strikeouts in a season as they helped the Eagles reach the postseason for the first time since 2018. They fell to the LG Twins in the Korean Series.
Preparing for the potential loss of both aces, the Eagles signed former minor league pitcher Wilkel Hernandez on Saturday and acquired Taiwanese hurler Wang Yan-Cheng as their Asian quota player on Nov. 13.
KBO clubs can sign a maximum two foreign-born pitchers and, starting in the 2026 season, an additional player either from an Asian country or Australia. The Eagles now have room for another pitcher from overseas.