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What time is it? It’s about time.
After rumors of his promotion surfaced Thursday evening, multiple outlets confirmed that infielder and Pittsburgh Pirates No. 11 prospect Ji-hwan Bae will join the team on Friday.
Ryan Palencer had the news first.
Ji-hwan Bae has been promoted and is headed to Pittsburgh.
— Ryan Palencer (@RyanPalencer) September 23, 2022
The 23-year-old middle infielder has had a successful season with Triple-A Indianapolis, slashing .283/.362/.792 in 108 games. He also added a career-high six triples and matched his career-high in home runs with eight.
Just got home from work and wanted to take a gander on the Indy game. Ji-Hwan Bae has been on fire going 4-4 so far in this game. Watch this home run. Originally thought to be a double but after a conference they changed it to a homer. Either way he smoked it to left center pic.twitter.com/TzCHPaioSH
— Cody Potanko (@2HG013) April 30, 2022
His success didn’t come as a “one-off” type of run this season as he’s excelled at all levels within the Pirates’ organization.
Last season, he hit .278 in 83 games with a .352 BABIP for Double-A Altoona. Prior to that, he posted a career OPS of .833 with Greensboro in 2019.
No word yet on if he will be in tonight’s starting lineup, but his promotion brings a couple of questions to light: How will Derek Shelton control time in the middle infield with Bae, Oneil Cruz, Rodolfo Castro and Kevin Newman? And does this mean Newman could be dealt this offseason?
No matter how you look at it, one thing is certain: Bae’s performance should have gotten him to Pittsburgh earlier than now, but better late than never.
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