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Warning: This piece discusses domestic violence and includes a link to an article that shows visual evidence of domestic violence.
In one of the earliest moves of the offseason, the Mets claimed Ji Hwan Bae off waivers from the Pirates. Bae, entering his age-27 season, appeared in 163 games in parts of four seasons with the Pirates from 2022-2025, but his on-field career is only part of his story.
In 2017, Bae was set to be the second South Korean player to sign directly out of high school with a major league team after Kwon Kwang-min signed with the Cubs in 2015. However, his contract with the Braves was voided after it was revealed that the contract was negotiated with Bae and 12 others under fraudulent terms. The KBO barred him from signing with a Korean team for two years for skipping the draft. The next season, Bae signed a $1.25 million contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
But the more disturbing part of Bae’s story comes from the period between his failed Braves contract and his subsequent Pirates one. An incident occurred on New Year’s Eve 2017, and Bae was accused of domestic violence against his then-girlfriend, including slapping, choking, and kicking her. He was eventually convicted for domestic abuse and was suspended by MLB for 30 games, as the verdict was handed down after he was already a member of the Pirates organization.
His victim, Seul-Gi Kim, spoke with the Athletic, and gave vivid details of the abuse:
“Bae Ji-hwan hit me. He hit me [on New Year’s Eve]. The first time I was (physically) abused was on New Year’s Eve (in 2017). There (also) was verbal abuse. Before the actual physical abuse, I was under critical stress due to him and his family. His family and he repeatedly asked me to ‘endure’ him because he is a baseball player and he needs support.
The alleged incident happened on New Year’s Eve in 2017, when Bae was 18. According to Kim, Bae “threatened me he would die if I didn’t see him again. Also, he squeezed my throat until I (said) that I would love him again.
“Some ask why I didn’t report him right away — the intensity of his physical and verbal abuse was getting stronger,” Seul-Gi Kim wrote. “Because of fear, I just couldn’t go ahead and do it. What I want now is the end of this sickening relationship, a fair trial, and a just punishment.
“I have been pressured physically and mentally and that made me very scared. If you don’t have anyone reliable or good around you, you probably don’t have the courage to report the abuser. I decided to go to this path after a lot of dilemma and mental anguish. It’s a big (mental) scar that can never heal.”
According to then-Pirates general manager Neal Huntington, Bae completed a treatment program.
“The Pittsburgh Pirates strongly support Major League Baseball’s domestic violence policy and agree with the need for significant penalties for any violation of this policy…The Pirates are committed to a culture that respects women on all levels and across all aspects of our organization. Ji-Hwan has completed a treatment program under the MLB policy.
“We will continue to work with him to ensure that he understands and adheres to the obligations and standards that are required of a professional baseball player and a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates.”
Teams sign players with domestic abuse backgrounds just about every season, and it is always a delicate situation. On one hand, many people claim that these players deserve a shot at redemption; an oft-repeated phrase is that no one should have their life ruined because of one mistake. And while people can, and should, admit wrongdoing and change for the better, more often than not, these players speak in vague platitudes and don’t publicly take significant steps towards actually changing their behavior.
Bae’s situation is slightly unusual both due to his prospect status when the event happened and the fact that it occurred overseas. There was not a lot of reporting on the event outside of the Athletic, and very little, if any of it stateside, featured quotes from Bae himself. It is unfair to paint him as either remorseful and committed to change or petulant and unmoved because we have not heard from him on the subject. If Bae has been contrite and done the work, he has done so in private.
All of this makes the Mets’ waiver claim even stranger. Bae’s on-field career has been nothing to write home about. A career .223/.294/.293 hitter in the big leagues, he’s a weak hitter with a decent glove who has some positional versatility. If he sticks with the Mets, he has a minor league option, so he would likely wind up beginning the year in Syracuse and being called up only for injury/27th man status. Bae is a depth piece that has a place in every organization in baseball, but he’s not a superstar either in the current day or in the making.
But even if he was, does an organization really want to bring on someone with a history of domestic abuse in 2026? The Mets didn’t sign him as a free agent, and so they didn’t get to sit him down and discuss his past. He was a waiver claim; he likely found out about the move via his agent once he was back in South Korea during the offseason.
It shouldn’t be the job of fans to find out if the player their team signed is remorseful for his violent past. It is the team’s job to either assure us that he is or to admit that they really don’t care what a player does off the field or did before donning orange and blue. While there may be more to this story, from a fan’s perspective, it’s fairly clear. The Mets looked at a fringy player and decided that this is the guy for whom they were willing to sell their integrity.