LG Twins of KBO League re-signs Yonny Chirinos and Austin Dean

The LG Twins of the Korea Baseball Organization announced earlier this week that they are right-handed Jonny Chirinos and first baseman Austin Dean have been re-signed to new contracts for the 2026 season. Right-handed Anders Tolhurst will also be brought back, as the Twins will retain their entire trio of foreign-born players from the previous season.

Dean earns the largest contract of the group with $1.4 million in guaranteed money ($1.1 million salary, $300,000 signing bonus) and another $300,000 available in incentives. Chirinos also received a $300,000 signing bonus, as well as $900,000 in guaranteed salary, and up to an additional $200,000 in incentives. Tolhurst will receive $800,000 in salary, a $200,000 signing bonus, and could receive another $200,000 in incentive bonuses.

All three players were key contributors to a Twins team that won the Korean Series in 2025, and Dean also played a big role on the franchise’s championship team in 2023. Dean has spent the last three seasons with the Twins, hitting .315/.384/.560 with 86 home runs over 1,686 plate appearances. His impressive resume with the Seoul-based team also includes a 2023 KBO All-Star nomination and two Golden Glove Awards.

Dean hit .228/.286/.390 in 365 PA and 126 games with the Marlins, Cardinals and Giants from 2018-2022, and struggled to stay in the Majors after getting most of his playing time with Miami in 2018-2019. Now entering his age-32 season, Dean has found a nice niche for himself with the Twins, and he may still have several years ahead of him in the KBO League.

Chirinos is another former big leaguer who emerged as a solid member of the Rays’ pitching mix in 2018-19, but Tommy John surgery threw his career off track. After posting a 3.65 ERA over 234 1/3 innings from 2018-2020, Chirinos spent the entire 2021 season rehabbing and then only delivered a 5.31 ERA over 122 innings with the Rays, Braves and Marlins during the 2022-2024 campaigns.

The move to Seoul helped get Chirinos back on track, as he posted a 3.31 ERA over 30 starts and 177 innings. A strong groundball pitcher in the minor leagues, Chirinos took that ability to new heights with a 59.8% grounder rate with the Twins. A small 4.9% walk rate also helped him avoid damage, even if he didn’t miss many bats with an 18.6% strikeout rate.

Tolhurst was a 23rd round pick for the Blue Jays in the 2019 draft, and he didn’t get any MLB playing time during his four seasons in Toronto’s farm system. He reached Triple-A Buffalo in 2025 and posted a 4.67 ERA in 71 1/3 innings with the Bisons. With seemingly no promotion to the Show on the horizon, Tolhurst was released in August so he could make the jump to the KBO League, and he immediately made an impact with his new team. Tolhurst had a 2.86 ERA over 44 innings with the Twins, and he was the winning pitcher in both Game 1 and the series-clinching Game 5 of the Korean Series.