Why was “genius shortstop” Kim Jae-ho, 39, who extended his contract for nearly 300 million won a year, sent back to the second team after just two months in the first team?
The Doosan Bears of the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) removed shortstop Kim Jae-ho from the first team roster on the seventh day of the season. What happened.
Doosan manager Lee Seung-yeop, who met with the team at a late-season training session at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on Monday, said, “There’s no chance for Jae-ho right now. We have three backups (at shortstop), Kim Jae-ho, Lee Yoo-chan and Jeon Min-jae, and there’s no way to rotate them,” he said, adding, “I thought about how they could coexist in the first half, but time kept passing, and the chances dwindled. I had no choice but to make a choice after the first half.”
Kim, 38, batted .288 with three home runs and 29 RBIs in 91 games last year, leading the team to its first fall return in two years. At the beginning of last year, it seemed likely that he would retire after the 2023 season, but after a successful rejuvenation, he extended his contract for 300 million won, a 40 percent cut from his previous 500 million won salary.
Like other veterans,
Kim slowly picked up his pace in the second team instead of the first team. He was finally called up by manager Lee Seung-yeop on May 2 and survived for more than two months, batting 2-for-5 with three RBIs and six runs scored in 29 games in limited opportunities. He spent more time on the bench than on the field, losing out to younger players such as Park Jun-young, who made the leap to the starting shortstop position, as well as Lee Yoo-chan and Jeon Min-jae.
It was not an easy decision to send down Kim, who could be in his final year of active service. Lee said, “I feel very sorry for the veteran. 카지노 커뮤니티 I’ve been a veteran myself, but you don’t have a long career left, so every day is really precious. I apologize for not giving him a chance in that situation. For team reasons, I thought it was right to go down and prepare him,” he said.
Lee also had some advice for Kim Jae-ho, who is heading to Icheon. “I told him to go down and prepare well,” Lee said. “I told him to go down and prepare well because you never know how the situation will change again in the future,” Lee said.
But on the other hand,
It’s not a scenario Doosan would like to see a 39-year-old player continue to play as a starter. The ideal rebuilding scenario would be for younger players to step up and take over while Kim is still active. After failing to find a post-Jae-ho last year, when he was 38, Doosan is now building a younger infield with Park Jun-young, Lee Yoo-chan, Jeon Min-jae, and others.
“Park Jun-young came into the position that (Kim) Jae-ho held for a long time, and Lee Yoo-chan and Jeon Min-jae have been playing better than last year. “If they didn’t grow like they did last year, it would have been a situation where Kim Jae-ho would have to go out again,” Lee said. “Now Jun-young has to stay at shortstop. I think it’s safe to say that the younger players have grown unlike last year.”