Everything Blue Jays fans need to know about KBO MVP Cody Ponce

Ponce, who signed a three-year $30 million contract with the Blue Jays on Wednesday, played two seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 2020-21, and has been pitching in Japan and Korea for the past four seasons.

In his two seasons in Pittsburgh, Ponce went 1-7 with a 5.86 ERA in 20 games (five starts) and 48 strikeouts in 55 1/3 innings.

In his three seasons in Japan, he went 10-16 with a 4.54 ERA in 39 outings for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters and Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, with 165 strikeouts in 202 innings.

Ponce was much more effective in his one season in Korea than he was during his time in Nippon Professional Baseball or in the Majors (although he did throw a no-hitter in NPB in 2022).

Ponce went 17-1 with a 1.89 ERA and 252 strikeouts in 180 2/3 innings (12.6 K/9) for the Hanwha Eagles last season.

Ponce's 252 K's set a new KBO single-season record, and he also set the single-game record with 18 strikeouts on May 17.

Ponce also had the KBO's lowest walks and hits per inning pitched with 0.94, no one else finished below 1.00, and finished second overall with 180 2/3 innings pitched.

Ponce was not charged with an earned run in 13 of his 29 starts and struck out at least 10 batters in eight of them.

In May, Ponce set a KBO record for the most strikeouts in a nine-inning game by punching out 18 batters against the SSG Landers.

He was a new-look pitcher in Korea. Ponce's fastball velocity sat around 95 mph, two mph higher than it was with the Pirates during his time in MLB.

He also added a new splitter that became a highly effective strikeout pitch.

With Ponce leading the rotation, the Eagles posted the second-best record in the regular season at 83-57-4 (wins-losses-ties) and reached the postseason for the first time since 2018. They also had the lowest team ERA with 3.55.

Ponce was named the KBO League MVP and won the Choi Dong-won Award as the league's top starting pitcher.

He was the ninth foreign-born player to win the MVP honor in the KBO, joining former OB Bears infielder Tyrone Woods (1998), Doosan Bears pitcher Daniel Rios (2007), NC Dinos infielder Eric Thames (2015), Bears pitcher Dustin Nippert (2016), Bears pitcher Josh Lindblom (2019), KT Wiz outfielder Mel Rojas Jr. (2020), Bears pitcher Ariel Miranda (2021), and Dinos pitcher Erick Fedde (2023).