5 billion FA who gave up their pride and left the U.S. Special Order...Can 36-year-old flame work? We need a big gun, not a shortstop.

Dec 26, 2024

photo courtesy of Lotte Giants

롯데 노진혁. Sports Chosun DB

For a professional player, moving to the FA is a lifetime choice. Good treatment is guaranteed compared to the original team, but all the heritage that the player has built throughout his career is ignored. It is evaluated only by the performance after the transfer.

In that sense, the transfer to the Lotte Giants was a huge inflection point for Roh Jin-hyuk (35). The value of being a founding member of NC and a one-club man franchise star has disappeared, leaving only the image of FA muktu who could not earn up to 5 billion won for four years.

Roh Jin-hyuk fixed the string of his baseball shoes ahead of the new season. Roh Jin-hyuk left for LA in mid-December. He is engaged in fierce training by visiting a baseball academy run by Heo Il from Lotte. He put down all of his pride of 20 home runs, a big shortstop, and 5 billion FA, and put everything into restoring his skills as a baseball player who fell to the floor.

An official from Roh Jin-hyuk said, `We plan to spend more than a month in the United States.' Considering that Lotte's spring camp starts on January 24, he will immediately leave for off-season training without any special rest after returning home in mid-January.

During the 2012 rookie draft, Noh Jin-hyuk wore the NC uniform as a special designation (five NC Dinos since the second round). This is a case that bloomed relatively late. Through constant efforts, he improved his skills.

Since 2018, when he was 30 years old, he has gradually pushed out veteran Son Si-heon to become the main player. In 2020, he had a batting average of 274, 20 homers and 82 RBIs, and an OPS of 0.836. He even won his first ring in his life, supporting NC's victory, represented by Yang Eui-ji's execution sword ceremony.

롯데 노진혁. Sports Chosun DB

It is a year that has made the nickname 'big shot shortstop' a reality, which was a semi-joke by achieving the first and last 20 home runs in his career. He also exceeded 1,000 innings for the first time since his debut. Since then, it has boasted its presence by recording an OPS of 0.8 or higher for three consecutive years until 2022.

After that, he moved to Lotte in 2023. Lotte, which lacked the middle layer and big guns, needed Roh Jin-hyuk's long shot and presence as a locker room leader. The four-year, 5 billion won in exceptional treatment shows the expectation.

Lotte's Noh Jin-hyuk was a quiet and pleasant senior at first glance. He was also close to his juniors in the first or second year. At the same time, he did not hesitate to play the villain who spoke bitterly like a veteran when necessary. His sincerity and hard work were recognized by everyone.

photo courtesy of Lotte Giants

In the first year of the transfer, he had a batting average of 257, four homers and 51 RBIs, and an OPS (on-base plus slugging) of 0.724 was a little disappointing, but he had a clutch heater in crisis. In an interview with Su-hoon player, he laughed hard, saying, `My parents who sprayed makgeolli yesterday to wish my son well are MVP.'

But a professional's pride is a grade. In the second season of the FA, Noh Jin-hyuk lost his smile in front of his missing long-range power and his rapidly falling performance.

In defense, he was a shortstop who had strength in positioning and predicting batting rather than quickness. However, the confidence lost in the batting was also evident in the defense.

In the end, Lotte manager Kim Tae-hyung declared to Roh Jin-hyuk in the middle of the season that he could not hit. Roh, who went down to the second division at the start of June, then devoted himself to defending first and third bases. Although he was sometimes used as a shortstop, he was only a temporary measure. In the end of August, it was rare to see the starting lineup.

photo courtesy of Lotte Giants

There are still two years left on the FA contract, but it is literally a crisis in his career. Roh Jin-hyuk, who was born in 1989, will be 36 next year.

Lotte recruited Kim Tae-hyung, the winning team's coach, but for the second consecutive year, it has caught only three of its own FA (Jeon Joon-woo, Kim Won-joong, Koo Seung-min) without any external FA.

Will Noh Jin-hyuk be able to report his revival next season. Lotte is such a valuable team that there are no 20 home run hitters for two consecutive years. The fence at Sajik Stadium will also be restored to 4.8 meters from next year. If Roh Jin-hyuk's one-shot long shot returns, it is expected to be a great help to the fall baseball challenge for the first time in eight years.

photo courtesy of Lotte Giants

lunarfly@sportschosun.com