The latest rumors have Major League Baseball reopening Spring Training on June 10, with opening day of a revised schedule coming on July 1. Teams would be playing in their own ballparks, but without any fans in attendance for the games. If you can’t wait until then, baseball returned to Korea last week with Opening Day for the KBO – the Korea Baseball Organization – and ESPN completed a deal to broadcast some of their games in the states.

If you’re not quite convinced it would be your thing to see players who you are not familiar with playing the game in Korea, it may help to realize that there are some familiar faces. The 10 teams in the league are limited to three non-Korean born players on their roster and many of the “foreign” roster spots are taken up by players who have logged time in professional baseball in the United States and a decent number of them are players who have put in time with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs.

The Samsung Lions have used two of their three available roster spots on former IronPigs players. Pitchers David Buchanan and Ben Lively are both members of the Lions pitching staff. Buchanan, who turns 30 next week, pitched for the IronPigs in parts of four seasons (2013-2016) going 24-15 with a 3.65 ERA. Unfortunately, Buchanan couldn’t replicate his success at the major league level and finished with a 5.01 ERA and an 8-15 record over two seasons with the Phillies. After pitching for the ‘Pigs in 2016, Buchanan pitched for the Yakult Swallows in Japan before moving to the KBO for the 2020 season.

Lively was considered a solid prospect, but he too struggled in the majors and moved from being a starter to working out of the bullpen, but still couldn’t find any lasting success. Lively pitched in the majors for the Phillies and Royals going 4-10 with a 4.80 ERA. Lively was released by the Royals last season and pitched briefly at Triple-A for Arizona before being released and signing with Samsung where he made nine starts with a 4-4 record and a 3.95 ERA.

Ricardo Pinto, 26, pitched in 25 games for the Phillies in 2017 before being traded to the White Sox for international slot money during spring training two years ago. He pitched briefly with Tampa Bay in 2019 and was then claimed off waivers by the Giants last fall before being released last winter. He wound up on the roster for the SK Wyverns and has made the team’s roster for this season.

Dan Straily never pitched for the Phillies but did pitch in eight major league seasons with six different teams. His last opportunity was with the IronPigs last season where he made six starts with a 1-4 record and a 5.18 ERA. Unable to find an opportunity with a major league team for this season, Straily headed for Korea where he will pitch for the Lotte Giants.

Outfielder Aaron Altherr is the lone position player in Korea who has previously logged time with Lehigh Valley. It sounds hard to believe, but Altherr played in 332 games with the Phillies over six seasons, hitting 36 home runs but batting just .222. In 2017, he hit 19 home runs and batted .272 with Philadelphia, leading the Phillies to think he may have some big things ahead of him. In 2018 though, in just two less games, he hit just eight home runs and lost almost .100 points off of his batting average and then bounced from Philly to San Francisco to the New York Mets on the waiver wire before being released this past fall. Altherr, who is now 29, will play for the NC Dinos in Korea this season.

Going from Korea back to the states this season is another former IronPig, Darin Ruf. The 33-year old spent the past three seasons with the Samsung Lions with a line of 86-350-.313/.404/.564 and impressed the San Francisco Giants enough to offer him a minor league contract. Should Ruf wind up playing for Triple-A Sacramento in the Giants organization he would be reunited with former Lehigh Valley manager Dave Brundage. He may also have former IronPigs catcher Rob Brantly on his team as well.

Ruf made $1.7-million last season in the KBO, but new players entering the league have their salaries capped at $1.0-million.

BASEBALL IN THE LV: While nothing is definite, the IronPigs season might not be played at Coca-Cola Park this season. Financially, having the team play in the Lehigh Valley with the added cost of travel and the cost of operating the ballpark doesn’t make much sense if the team can’t have fans in attendance. Every other minor league team is in the same situation, so it’s likely that the minor league season will be played out in some form from the team’s spring training complexes. Major league teams can at least draw income from big-time national and local television contracts, but minor league rights aren’t nearly lucrative enough to make playing at home a viable option.

IN THIS TOGETHER: The IronPigs raised over $21,000 through their “In This Together” T-shirt sales and #HopeningDay celebration. The money will go to the Lehigh Valley Health Network and the St. Luke’s University Health Network for the fight against COVID-19. Money was raised through the sale of T-shirts, a local “Eat Like A Pig” promotion and a Go Fund Me campaign. The campaign covered two weeks and was considered a big success.