LG Twins acquire Australian pitcher Jon Kennedy

SEOUL, Aug. 15 (Yonhap) -- The LG Twins announced Saturday they have acquired Australian pitcher Jon Kennedy as their new Asian quota player.

Kennedy, who signed for US$20,000 for the rest of this Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) season, replaces fellow Australian, Lachlan Wells. Those two were teammates for Australia at this year's World Baseball Classic.

Kennedy, 31, has mostly pitched in his native Australia and also has four years of U.S. minor league experience, having reached as high as Triple-A.

In the U.S., Kennedy compiled a 10-10 record with a 3.09 ERA over 186 1/3 innings in 94 games.

The Twins described Kennedy as a groundball pitcher who will bolster their pitching staff the rest of this season, as they try to win their second straight Korean Series title.

Kennedy will be eligible for the postseason if the Twins get there, with Aug. 15 being the annual deadline for KBO clubs to put new foreign players on their active roster to have them available for postseason action.

Prior to Saturday's games, the Twins were in third place at 57-47-1 (wins-losses-ties), with the top five teams advancing to the postseason. The Twins were in first place on June 30 but have gone 9-17-1 since July 1, the worst record in the KBO in that span.

Wells had a strong start to his 2026 campaign, going 5-2 with a 2.88 ERA in his first 13 starts through June.

His season spun out of control in July, though, as he went 0-3 with a 7.20 ERA in five appearances that month. Wells lasted his season-low 2 2/3 innings in his most recent game Aug. 4 and was yanked from the starting rotation. The Twins later revealed that Wells had been dealing with shoulder problems that would keep him out for at least four weeks.

Earlier this week, the Twins tried to replace him with the Japanese pitcher Akitake Okada from the Ulsan Whales, an unaffiliated team in the second-tier Futures League.

The two clubs had a deal in place and Okada even threw a bullpen session for the Twins after the KBO had initially given them the go-ahead sign. The Twins contacted the KBO on Monday about the proposed deal, given its unprecedented nature, since no KBO club had previously signed a Whales player midseason.

However, the KBO told the two clubs Wednesday that a Future League player may only sign with a KBO club between the end of the postseason in one year and July 31 the next year.

The KBO apologized to both teams for not being thorough in its review of the related rules.