Seo Geon-chang's failed rebound in the 201-hit myth, and his belief in the amount of salt didn't work either
The LG Twins announced on the 26th, "We have decided to remove the following 12 players from the list of pending players through the team organization." He is preparing for the 2024 season, leaving behind the joy of winning the integrated championship for the first time in 29 years since 1994.
As for pitchers, a total of five players, including Song Eun-beom, Lee Chan-hyuk, Kim Tae-hyung (left-hander), Sung Jae-heon and Lim Jung-woo, were notified that they could not renew their contracts. A total of four infielders, including Seo Geon-chang, Chung Ju-hyun, Kim Sung-hyeop, and Choi Hyun-joon, were excluded from the list of suspended players. In addition, outfielders Lee Chun-woong, Choi Min-chang and Lee Chul-min will also leave LG.
As expected, the most eye-catching name is Seo Geon-chang.
Before the opening of this season, the LG Twins' biggest concern was the "second baseman." LG couldn't find a player to play as an axis of the center line for years, and it's been quite a while in between.
Of course, LG relieved a little of its worries by discovering the best "hit product" Shin Min-jae this season. Shin Min-jae, who mainly played as an outfielder, was quickly reborn as the main second baseman, and played in 122 games in the first division this season. He also took responsibility for the team's mobility with 37 stolen bases.
However, in a way, Shin Min-jae was close to Plan B. This means that the head coach did not flow to the "best scenario" originally planned. Even when preparing for the season, the main second basemen that Yeom Kyung-yeop thought of were Kim Min-sung and Seo Geon-chang. In particular, expectations were high for Seo Geon-chang, who experienced a full-time season as the main second baseman.
Coach Yeom, who mentioned Shin Min-jae's performance in an interview with reporters in early August, said, "The contact and direction of (Shin) Min-jae have been good since spring camp, but I've been training with second baseman and outfielder just in case. (Seo)I had to prepare for it if Geon-chang failed, so I practiced Min-jae, who only played the outfield, in the infield."
Until last year's final camp, Seo Geon-chang was one of the players who challenged the starting lineup. The head coach has not hidden his faith in Seo throughout this year's spring camp and exhibition games. Coach Yeom believed in the player's rebound because he watched Seo Geon-chang for a longer time than anyone else since he was a Heroes.
Seo Kun-chang started receiving many opportunities in 2012 when he was wearing a Nexen (current Kiwoom) Heroes uniform after joining LG as a fostering player in 2008. In particular, in 2014, he played in all games (128 games) and had 201 hits. It was the moment when the first single-season 200-hit hero was born in the history of the KBO League.
Seo Geon-chang, who had been drawing an upward curve until the late 2010s, changed his uniform with pitcher Jung Chan-heon when he was notified of the trade at the end of July 2021. LG, which had no significant movement, gave up its starting resources to match the final puzzle piece of the fielders, and devoted its energy to recruiting infielders. On the contrary, Kiwoom, which had intended to set up an infield with younger players, paved the way for Seo Geon-chang to get a chance to play in other teams.
Seo Geon-chang was clearly guaranteed a chance in the new team with the transfer, and filled 600 at-bats for the first time in four years since 2017 (615 at-bats). However, I didn't show much. Seo had 130 hits in 513 times at bat and a batting average of 0.253 with six homers and 52 RBIs in the regular season that year. It was true that there was a regret somewhere.
In the end, Seo Kun-chang dreamed of making a comeback after giving up exercising his FA (free contract) rights after the 2021 season, but he suffered a severe slump the following year with 49 hits in 219 at-bats for a batting average of 0.224 with two home runs and 18 RBIs in 77 games. He was now in a situation where he could not even get a chance to play, and he did not appear in the FA market for the second consecutive year.
It seemed like it would be different this year. Seo Geon-chang played in 13 exhibition games and finished warming up with 17 hits in 47 at-bats with a batting average of 0.3624 RBIs. Naturally, he was included in the starting lineup from the opening two consecutive games against KT Wiz on April 1st and 2nd.
However, Seo Geon-chang was sluggish with 18 hits in 81 at-bats for a month in April, batting .222 with 12 RBIs, and was silent with no hits in six at-bats in May. On May 14, when he started as the seventh batter and second baseman, he had no hit in three at-bats against the Daegu Samsung Lions, and eventually was excluded from the first-team entry on May 19 and stayed in the second team for more than three months.
Seo Kun-chang, who came up as the first team with the implementation of the expanded entry, did not meet the coaching staff's expectations with 4 hits in 23 at-bats in 13 games and a batting average of 0.174 even after September. In the end, he failed to board the Korean Series entry and could not enjoy the joy of winning the integrated championship.
Even this winter, Seo Geon-chang quietly welcomed the winter without exercising FA rights. He wants to continue his career as a player and is expected to wait for contact from clubs for the time being. If the team needs to reinforce the infield, it is worth trying to recruit, but it remains to be seen how the situation will go. Will Seo Kun-chang, who wrote 201 Hit Myth, be able to get back on his feet.