KBO Notebook

The 2026 KBO season has been a tumultuous one for many of the league’s foreign players, with the Doosan Bears among the teams leading the charge in proactively replacing their foreign cast. Last year, seven-year MLB journeyman Jake Cave put in 136 games of work for the Bears, posting an .814 OPS before being let go of despite expressing interest in renewing his contract with the club. In the pitching staff, 29-year-old Zach Logue started a total of 29 games (making one relief appearance) to the tune of a 2.81 ERA while Cole Irvin made 28 starts and struggled almost as much as he did in his final MLB campaign the year prior, posting a 4.48 ERA. Predictably, Logue renewed with Doosan on a one year deal while Irvin was shown the door.

Entering the 2026 season Doosan added right handed pitcher Chris Flexen, an eight-year MLB veteran and standout member of the 2020 Bears, as well as outfielder Daz Cameron, a former Houston Astros first round pick and son of Mike Cameron, who along with a returning Zach Logue made up their original foreign crop for the new season. Ichiro Tamura, an at-times stellar relief pitcher who spent nine years with the Saitama Seibu Lions of Nippon Professional Baseball, was added as a fourth foreign player through the new Asian quota system.

Fast forward to mid-July, and only one of this promising crop remains in Seoul. Chris Flexen made it just five innings into his Doosan return before being pulled early in his second start due to upper back and shoulder pain. Following a diagnosis of a partial tear in his right shoulder, he returned to the United States for rehabilitation in June and was dropped by Doosan. Ichiro Tamura, just two years off posting a 1.82 ERA in 28 appearances with the Seibu Lions, came completely undone almost immediately. While the standard for relief pitchers in KBO is not high, Tamura’s 7.31 ERA in 16 innings was certainly not enough to justify his taking up of Doosan’s sole Asian quota system roster spot. In contrast with Flexen and Tamura, Daz Cameron was both healthy and productive. While not a staggering upgrade over Jake Cave, Cameron hit .287 with a .360 OBP and an .833 OPS through 75 games while slugging nine home runs and 19 doubles, and also stealing nine bases without being caught once. Unfortunately for Cameron, this wasn’t enough. From the 12th of June through his final game in Korea on the 27th, Cameron hit just .175 (seven hits in 40 at-bats) and finished the month of June with just one home run. Meanwhile, young corner outfielders Kim Min-seok and Ryu Seung-min simultaneously had the best months of their careers, which pushed Daz Cameron out of the lineup and rendered his foreign roster spot a waste.

Each of the three exiles have been promptly replaced. Former Texas Rangers and more recently KT Wiz left-hander Wes Benjamin was signed in place of Flexen, and has since put up a more than satisfactory 2.71 ERA in 14 starts. 23-year-old Takada Takuto was brought in to replace Tamura, but has since been temporarily removed from the roster after allowing 12 earned runs in 13.1 innings. The latest acquisition has of course followed the latest departure, as now in place of Daz Cameron sits 26-year-old Dominican infielder Yunior Severino. Unlike the rest of Doosan’s non-Asian quota foreign imports over the last couple seasons, Severino has never played a game of Major League Baseball, but he has absolutely torn up the Mexican League on an Olmecas de Tabasco roster featuring 17 former MLB players. In 54 games, Severino hit .340, and while he did not flash the home run power he’d previously shown in AA and AAA, he did hit 24 doubles and ranked 3rd on his team with a .931 OPS. Last night, Severino made his debut at first base for Doosan, prompting interesting shifts in defensive positioning where 34-year-old usual first baseman Yang Seok-hwan eventually found himself in right field with Yang Eui-ji resting his legs at DH on a break from catching.

In his awaited debut, Severino went two-for-five with a ninth inning RBI double. His late double amounted to nothing as Doosan fell to the NC Dinos by a score of four to two, but he has already caught attention with a new cheer song many consider to be quite entertaining. Listen here.

Doosan will need Severino to be a stabilizing force for their inconsistent lineup if they hope to cling on to their fifth-place spot and return to the playoffs after a disappointing 2025 campaign. They currently sit at 44-42, just one-and-a-half games ahead of the Hanwha Eagles and two ahead of the NC Dinos, who have a chance to close the gap in the remaining games of their series in Changwon.