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Left-handed starting pitcher Hyun-jin Ryu has accepted the Dodgers’ one-year, $17.9 million qualifying offer, as Fancred’s Jon Heyman reported first and the Los Angeles Times’ Jorge Castillo confirmed on Monday:
Hyun-Jin Ryu has accepted the qualifying offer from the Dodgers, per source. @Feinsand and @JonHeyman were on it.
— Jorge Castillo (@jorgecastillo) November 12, 2018
Ryu, who will be 32 years old next season, was the only one of seven players tendered a qualifying offer to accept it. He capitalizes off the momentum from a resurgent 2018 season during which he posted a career-best 1.97 ERA and 1.01 WHIP over 15 starts, adding seven innings of shutout, four-hit ball in Game 1 of the NLDS before struggling in the NLCS and World Series. His biggest weakness, his durability, remained an issue in 2018, as he missed over two months with a left groin tear. He missed the entire 2015 season and was limited to just one start in 2016 due to shoulder issues, and he’s spent time on the DL in every year since 2014 — in other words, his rookie year was the only season during which he remained healthy all the way through.
He’ll return to a rotation mix in LA that will feature Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler, Rich Hill, Alex Wood, Ross Stripling, Julio Urias, and perhaps Dennis Santana and Dylan Ferguson as the season goes on.
Ryu becomes the sixth MLB player to accept a qualifying offer since the system was put into place after the 2012 season. Colby Rasmus (Astros), Matt Wieters (Orioles), Brett Anderson (Dodgers), Neil Walker (Mets), and Jeremy Hellickson (Phillies) were the previous players to do so.