Deibinson Romero agrees to deal with Korean team

Pirates Triple-A infielder Deibinson Romero has agreed to terms with the KBO's Doosan Bears, Yonhap News Agency reports. The Bears still need to buy out Romero's contract with the Pirates before the deal is done.

Romero is hitting .302/.403/.548 for Indianapolis. It's a shame he'll be leaving the Bucs, but with the emergence of Jung-Ho Kang (a KBO product, coincidentally), there wouldn't have been much use for Romero at the big-league level, at least not anytime soon. Romero's utility as a bench player is somewhat limited, too, since he only plays third and first.

At 28, one might have thought Romero would have stuck it out in Triple-A for a bit longer to try to make it to the big leagues -- as C.J. Nitkowski explains, deciding to go abroad at 32 or 33 can be a lot easier than doing it at 28 or 29, when it's more likely to result in a missed big-league opportunity. With Romero playing so well this year, though, it's hard to blame him for striking while the iron is hot. In Korea, he'll presumably make several times what he's making in Indianapolis.