Recruit 200G Release Players… Lotte's "Local Boy" Collection, Are you looking forward to the last flame
Lotte Giants effectively withdrew from the free agent market. After signing a four-year contract with Jeon Joon-woo, an internal free agent, for up to 4.7 billion won (approx. Ahn Chi-hong signed a 4+2 year contract with Hanwha for up to 7.2 billion won (approx. With the salary cap issue at hand, Lotte has minimized expenditures and is effectively distancing itself from the remaining external FAs.
He is relatively active except in the FA market. In the second draft, Oh Sun-jin and Choi Hang, who can fill Ahn Chi-hong's absence and reinforce infield depth, were recruited from Hanwha and SSG, respectively. Later, he gave LG the right to select a rookie player (fifth round of the 2025 rookie draft) and transfused veteran left-hander Jin Hae-soo (37).
In addition, on the 17th, he also announced the recruitment of left-hander Lim Joon-seop (34) by keeping foreign player Charlie Barnes and recruiting batter Victor Reyes. Lim Joon-seop, who joined the professional league in 2012 after being selected as the 15th overall pick in the second round of the KIA Tigers, has a professional record of 12 wins, 26 losses and 10 holds with a 5.67 ERA in 368 ⅓ innings in 200 games.
After joining KIA, Lim joined Hanwha Eagles in a four-to-three trade with seven players in 2015. Afterwards, he was notified of his release after playing through the 2022 season and continued his active career after going through tests by SSG Landers. At this year's SSG, he had 41 games, two losses, four saves and an ERA of 5.79. However, he was informed of his release on April 24. Lotte reached out to Lim and explained the reason behind his recruitment, saying, "I judged that Lim is competitive as a left-hander, including his mound management competitive advantage and stable ball control."
As a result, Lotte will recruit two veteran left-handers including Jin and Lim Joon-seop this winter. Jin was a left-hander specialist representing the KBO League. He is a veteran who recorded 152 holds while playing 573 ⅓s in 788 games. From 2016 to 2022, he played in more than 50 games for seven consecutive years, demonstrating his consistency. He also became the hold king in 2017 by recording three wins, three losses, one save, and 24 holds with an ERA of 3.93 in 75 games. He recorded 20 holds for two consecutive years with 20 holds in 2019 and 22 holds in 2020, and played a role in the bullpen last year with 4 wins and 12 holds with an ERA of 2.40.
This year, however, he was disqualified and posted a two-hold ERA of 3.68 (six earned runs in 14 ⅔ innings) with 12 strikeouts and 10 walks. He never let go of the ball in the Futures League, recording one win, one save and five hold ERA of 1.61 in 27 games.
Lotte has always had a thirst for left-handed pitchers. As the number of left-handed hitters in the league increased, left-handed pitchers such as left-handed ones were considered essential at times. Recently, however, left-handed hitters have adapted to left-handed pitchers and left-handed ones are better at pitching left-handed pitchers, raising questions about their effectiveness. Except for top-rated players, left-handed hitters still find left-handed pitchers tricky.
Lotte basically failed to cause any inconvenience to left-handed hitters because it had few left-handed pitchers. Prior to Koo Seung-min, the club's record holder for most holds was left-handed Kang Young-sik, but no left-handed pitcher stood out except for Kang Young-sik. When there was not enough left-handed pitchers to call them up to the first division, and there was no outstanding player among them, they tried to deal with left-handed hitters as right-handed pitchers without dwelling on left-right play.
Despite this, Lotte was still weak against left-handed hitters. During the four seasons from 2020 to this year, Lotte posted an average hit rate of 282 percent and an OPS of .766 against left-handed hitters. All of them were last in the league. Although Lotte was the team that faced the most left-handed hitters (1,152 at-bats), it was weak against left-handed hitters and failed to come up with a decent strategy. The records also show that it was difficult to deal with left-handed hitters.
Left-handed pitchers Kim Yu-young (currently LG) and Kim Jin-wook (currently LG) appeared in the early 2022 season and appeared as specialists in the early 2023 season, but they only briefly glimmered. They failed to maintain consistency throughout the season. Midway through this season, they gave up infielder Lee Ho-yeon to KT and hired left-handed Shim Jae-min in a trade. On top of that, they also recruited Jin Hae-soo and Lim Joon-seop this winter.
Coincidentally, all three left-handers were from Busan. Shim Jae-min was a promising player in Busan and South Gyeongsang Province who started with the Gimhae Angels Little Baseball Team and graduated from Kaesong Middle School and Kaesong High School. Jin is a native of Busan who graduated from Dongsam Elementary School, Gyeongsangnam-do Middle School and Busan High School. Lim Joon-seop graduated from Daeyeon Elementary School, Busan Middle School and Kaesong High School and graduated from Kyungsung University in Busan until college.
All of them have grown while watching Lotte's baseball games at Sajik Stadium. Comments such as "I'm glad that you came back home," "I grew while watching Lotte's baseball games. I wanted to play at Sajik Stadium" were natural and sincere. Shim Jae-min was a promising left-hander who suffered ups and downs at KT, but after moving to Lotte, he rebounded with 3 wins, 1 loss and 6 holds with an ERA of 2.96 in 45 ⅔s in 29 games (six starts) and made people look forward to 2024. Jin Hae-soo, who was an out-of-power resource at LG this year, and Lim Joon-seop, who was released from SSG, were all happy about the call from his hometown team and are renewing their commitment at his hometown team.
Lim Joon-seop said, "I said I wanted to try it at Lotte around me, but people around me said, 'It worked out as you said,'" and added, "If it wasn't Lotte, I would have thought about another club's proposal, but I was so happy that Lotte, who wanted to go once, offered it."
"It wasn't intentional, but it happened," a club official said with a smile, explaining, "Our team lacked left-handed pitchers and we need to nurture young players, but we still need to play games. We also need veterans who can do our best immediately."
Nevertheless, Lotte hopes that they will bring the team their last success to their hometowns. Playing in the team's hometown is both a turning point in one's career and an opportunity to change the mood. It is a factor that can motivate the players. How much can Lotte's local boy left-handers, who are returning to their hometown teams at the end of their careers, contribute to its 2024 pitching lineup.