Former Blue Jays outfielder signs with KBO's SSG Landers

Heredia is sidelined by an infection that's expected to keep him out of action for at least the next six weeks. Typically, KBO teams can roster only three foreign players, but the league has an exception to that rule for players tasked with temporarily replacing a foreign player who suffered an injury that will keep them out of action for six weeks or longer.

McBroom is joining SSG under this exception, and once Heredia is healthy the ready to return he'll either need to be removed from the roster and placed on waivers or permanently replace one of the club's other foreign players.

McBroom, 33, was a 15th-round pick by the Blue Jays in 2015. With the Dunedin Blue Jays he hit 21 home runs and continued to hit plenty of doubles as well as he racked up 26. With all this power he was able to drive in 83 runs and score 58 of his own.

With the Vancouver Canadians McBroom showed that he has a bat with plenty of pop. In the short season North Western League that season, McBroom popped off 11 home runs and 59 RBI while batting .297. He also added 23 doubles in those 70 games.

The following season with the Lansing Lugnuts saw McBroom become even more consistent at the plate.

By 2017, in his first full season in the Jays organization saw him bud into a true force within the Midwest League.

Through 127 games he was nothing short of impressive at the plate, batting .315 with 39 doubles, 12 home runs, and 90 RBI.

McBroom was traded to the Yankees in 2018, then Kansas City later that year, who made it to the majors with the Royals during the 2019 season.

He ultimately played just 66 games in the majors across parts of three seasons, though he did feature prominently on Kansas City's bench during the shortened 2020 season.

That was the best campaign of his career in some ways; while he hit just .247 with a .282 on-base percentage, he slugged six homers and three doubles in just 85 trips to the plate while backing up Alex Gordon and Hunter Dozier in left field and at first base.

Overall, McBroom hit a roughly league average .268/.322/.427 in 177 trips to the plate in the majors before being released by the Royals in November of 2021 to pursue a career in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball.

McBroom signed on with NPB's Hiroshima Carp for the 2022 season and ultimately spent two seasons with the club. While he hit an impressive .272/.352/.442 in 128 games during his first year of NPB play, 2023 did not go nearly as well.

He scuffled to a subpar .221/.305/.354 line across 70 games before returning to the United States for the 2024 season to play in the independent Atlantic League for the Long Island Ducks.

McBroom excelled in indy ball across 88 games, hitting .268/.376/.497 with 19 homers and 15 doubles in just 375 plate appearances.

That strong work with the Ducks seems to have caught the attention of SSG, and now McBroom will get the opportunity to prove himself in the KBO for at least the next six weeks.

If he hits well enough, it wouldn't be a surprise to see the outfielder stick around in Korea, whether that ends up being with the Landers or a different KBO club that's willing to part with one of its current foreign players in order to roster McBroom.