Carlos Carrasco's 2026 has been one of the strangest seasons a 39-year-old journeyman has ever had. He got outrighted, elected free agency, came back to Atlanta, got DFA'd again, and repeated that cycle multiple times before the Braves finally cut him loose for good. Now, according to MLB Trade Rumors, he's found a new home an ocean away.
MLB Trade Rumors broke the news that the LG Twins signed Carrasco and released Yacksel Rios to make room.
The move is straightforward roster math. LG Twins needed an open foreign-player slot, so Yacksel Rios, a reliever who'd been holding down that spot, got released to clear it for Carrasco. That's how it works in the KBO — teams carry a small handful of import spots, and when a bigger name becomes available, someone already on the roster usually pays the price.
For Carrasco, this is genuinely new territory. Across 17 MLB seasons — 11 of them with Cleveland, where he was a fan favorite and led the American League with 18 wins back in 2017 — he never pitched outside affiliated ball in the States. He's finishing his career with a 112-105 record and a 4.22 ERA, numbers that made him a reliable mid-rotation arm for the better part of a decade and a half.
But the road to Korea wasn't smooth. Carrasco spent 2026 in a bizarre revolving door with Atlanta — DFA'd, outrighted, electing free agency, then re-signing on minor league deals, reportedly six separate times with the Braves before they moved on from him for good. That kind of stop-and-start year usually signals the end of the road for a veteran, not a fresh contract overseas.
Instead, LG Twins are betting that a 39-year-old with a track record of durability and big-game experience — he made a World Series start for Cleveland and has been a good clubhouse presence everywhere he's gone — can still get outs at the highest level of Korean baseball. It's a low-cost, low-risk swing for a club looking to bolster its rotation, and for Carrasco it's a chance to keep pitching professionally instead of hanging it up.
It's also a fitting coda to one of the more unusual journeyman careers in recent memory. Carrasco has now pitched for Cleveland, the Mets, the Yankees, the Braves, and soon the LG Twins, a run that spans continents as much as it does seasons. Whether he thrives in the KBO or this ends up being a short stopover, it's worth watching how a guy with 112 big league wins closes out the book.