The Pirates received an exemption from Major League Baseball and the players’ union that allows Jung Ho Kang to play in the Dominican Winter League without being removed from the restricted list, general manager Neal Huntington said Sunday.
Kang spent the whole 2017 season on the restricted list, not earning salary or service time, because the Department of State denied his applications for a visa after his third drunken-driving arrest in his native South Korea.
“There are a few reasons where there’s an exemption given to a team that does not have to reinstate a player on the restricted list and we’ve been given confirmation that the union and Major League Baseball have gotten together and this would classify as an exemption,” Huntington said.