Keuchel tries to re-enter Major League Baseball.

Seattle agreed to sign a minor league contract with left-handed pitcher Dallas Keuchel on Thursday (Korea time). Keuchel is expected to join Triple-A team the Tacoma Rainiers soon.

It is not an "important recruitment" as evidenced by the minor league deal. Seattle has a solid roster. Prospects Brian Wu were placed on the injured list due to elbow problems, but Luis Castillo, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert, Bryce Miller, and Emerson Hancock still make up the rotation. Prospects such as Jonathan Diaz and Levi Stout are also on standby at Triple-A. Rather than being desperate for a pitcher, the deal was made to strengthen the team's roster.

However, attention is focusing on the player he recruited. Keuchel is one of the pitchers who dominated the Major League Baseball. He is an All-Star and a winner of the Cy Young Award. Despite his old age, Keuchel's development is remarkable because he is 36 years old and can play in the big leagues.

Born in 1988, Keuchel was drafted by the Houston Astros in the seventh round of the 2009 Rookie Draft. As the selection round indicates, he was not a top prospect, and he was never included in the top 100 prospect list. Debuting in the big leagues in 2012, Keuchel had the first two unexpected seasons.

During the 2012-2013 season, he played 239 innings in 47 games, recording 9 wins, 18 losses and an ERA of 5.20. Keuchel, a pitcher whose average fastball speed was less than 90 miles per hour, also recorded an ERA in the late three-point range in Triple-A. As a low-ranking starting pitcher, just keeping the rotation without any major problems has played a sufficient role.

However, he emerged suddenly in the 2014 season, the third year since his debut. He pitched 200 innings in 29 games, recording 12-9 losses with a 2.93 ERA. He pitched five complete games to emerge as an inning player, and also won the Gold Glove Award for his outstanding defense.

And in the 2015 season, Keuchel won the American League Cy Young Award with a 20-8 record with a 2.48 ERA in 33 games and 232 innings. He pitched the most innings in the AL, became a multi-win leader, and showed off his spirit with two shutouts. His five shutouts in 2014 and two in 2015 were both the AL's best records of the year. The league was dominated by pitchers with fastballs averaging less than 90 mph and poor strikeout ability of less than one strikeout per inning.

Since then, Keuchel has gone through ups and downs. In the 2016 season, he was injured and posted a 4.55 ERA in 26 games.

However, Keuchel, who entered the free agent market after the 2018 season, was shocked as a free agent after agent Scott Boras' "gutty strategy" failed. He rejected Houston's qualifying offer and confidently entered the free agent market, but no one offered a contract worthy of the contract Keuchel and Boras wanted. Keuchel returned to the big league mound after signing with the Atlanta Braves only in the summer when the penalty for refusing the qualifying offer disappeared, recording an 8-8 record and 3.75 ERA in 112.2 innings in 19 games.

Keuchel returned to the market after a shocking free agent contract, signing a three-year, $55.5 million contract with the Chicago White Sox, where he excelled in 11 shortened seasons with 63.1 innings, 6-2 losses and a 1.99 ERA. He seemed to be rising again after overcoming the humiliation he had suffered, but that was all. Keuchel suffered a shocking slump with a 5.28 ERA in 162 innings in 32 games in the 2021 season, falling further in the 2022 season. Keuchel, who was sluggish with a 7.88 ERA in eight games, was eventually released by the White Sox in May 2022 after failing to meet his full contract period.