KIA, a professional baseball team, finalized its foreign player roster for the 2026 season, making a unique choice among the 10 teams. While nine teams used the newly introduced Asian quota to strengthen their pitching staff, KIA turned to a shortstop among position players. KIA signed Australian national team shortstop Jared Dale, 25 years old, for a total of $150,000 on the 24th.
This decision is linked to the departure of starting shortstop Park Chan-ho. Park Chan-ho, 30 years old, left the team last month after signing a 4-year maximum 8 billion Korean won contract with Doosan. As the shortstop position is not just a defensive position but the core of the center line and a benchmark for the infield defense organization, KIA needed to make a swift decision. Although converting Kim Do-young to shortstop was considered, it was not feasible in reality considering injury management and national team schedules, and other candidates also lacked experience playing full-time in the first team.
However, foreign shortstops in Korean professional baseball have been a rare challenge with few success stories. The three foreign players have effectively been fixed as a composition of “two pitchers + one batter,” with the batter position typically going to a power hitter expected to produce long hits. Yet, a foreign shortstop must possess offensive capabilities as a foreign player while also meeting the demands of stable defense as a shortstop, coordination with teammates, and adaptability to strategic baseball. For this reason, it has been evaluated as a card close to a gamble from the team’s perspective.
In the 2016 season, SK (now SSG) shortstop Hector Gomez hit 21 home runs but made 25 errors. Kiwoom’s Edison Russell recorded 15 career errors in the KBO and failed to meet expectations offensively. Dixon Machado, who played for Lotte, received praise for his excellent defense but showed disappointment at the plate, parting ways after just two seasons. The exceptional case is Tilsen Brito, who became the first foreign player to win the Golden Glove as a shortstop in 2002 and recorded 112 home runs and 391 RBIs over six seasons.
Despite these risks, the analysis is that KIA chose a shortstop this time because Dale is under the “additional slot” Asian quota, not the existing foreign batter slot. KIA secured a minimum safety measure to prevent the collapse of the center line by signing Dale at a relatively low cost. Additionally, the new foreign batter Harold Castro is a resource who can play all infield and outfield positions, making it possible to use him as a shortstop depending on the situation. If a combination where Dale plays shortstop and Castro takes second base is activated, a rare “foreign keystone combo” in the KBO League will be born.
