PEORIA, Ariz. – The San Diego Padres have signed left-handed pitcher Kyle Hart to a one-year contract through the 2025 season with a club option for 2026, President of Baseball Operations and General Manager A.J. Preller announced today.
Hart, 32, spent 2024 with the NC Dinos of the Korea Baseball Organization, and was awarded the Choi Dong-won Award, the KBO equivalent of MLB’s Cy Young Award, after leading the league with 182 strikeouts and finishing second in both wins (13) and ERA (2.69) across 26 appearances (all starts). The 6-foot-5, 200-pound southpaw walked just 38 of his 631 batters faced for a 6.0 percent walk rate to go along with a 28.8 percent strikeout rate, and his 124 total hits allowed were the fewest among all qualifying KBO starters.
The Cincinnati, Ohio native was originally selected by the Boston Red Sox in the 19th round of the 2016 First-Year Player Draft, and yielded 19 earned runs in 11.0 innings pitched across four appearances (three starts) for Boston during the COVID-shortened 2020 season. Across parts of seven minor league seasons for Boston (2016-22), Seattle Mariners (2023) and Philadelphia Phillies (2023), Hart managed a 42-47 record, 3.72 ERA (290 ER, 701.2 IP) and 618 strikeouts against 259 walks in 143 appearances (119 starts) with five complete games. He was Indiana University’s Friday night starter during his 2016 senior campaign, leading the Big Ten in wins (10) while exiting the program as the second-winningest pitcher (31 wins) in the Hoosiers’ record books. He was also a First-Team All-Big Ten selection in 2016, named to the ABCA/Rawlings Mideast All-Region Team, and twice boasted Big Ten Player of the Week honors.