He's already No. 1 in the starting race, but he has up to 7 billion FA...Runner-up tears. Will it be different in the new year
Dec 30, 2024
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Samsung, which ranked second in the regular season, won 52 of its 78 wins in 144 games. The relief victory was 26 wins. It is more than the regular-season champion KIA Tigers. KIA had 87 wins, but only 50 starts. That's how much more salvation wins were.
It is one of the evidence that Samsung has set up the starting rotation most stably. The power of the 'domestic ace' Won Tae-in and foreign pitchers was great. Won Tae-in won 15 games this season and became the league's top multiple wins at the same time as the most wins in the team. Along with Kwak Bin (Doosan), he won the title by tying for first in multiple wins.
Foreign pitchers also won 11 games each. Denny Reyes had 11 wins and Conor Seabold had 11 wins. Korean starting pitchers who started from 4th to 5th also played their part to some extent. Baek Jung-hyun and Lee Seung-hyun each won six games, and rookie Lee Ho-sung won two games. Hwang Dong-jae also won one of six games.
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Won Tae-in is in good shape, and foreign pitchers have also been replaced with more reliable cards. Instead of Connor, who left due to injury at the end of the regular season, Ariel Furado, who failed to renew his contract with the Kiwoom Heroes, was recruited. Furado is a pitcher who has already been verified. During the two seasons he played for Kiwoom, he played full-time without injury in 30 consecutive games for two consecutive years, and recorded 11 wins and 8 losses and an ERA of 2.65 in the 2023 season and 10-8 losses and an ERA of 3.36 in the 2024 season. Considering that Kiwoom's team performance was not good enough to finish last for two consecutive years, we can see how stable Furado's performance was.
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Samsung also felt sorry to say goodbye to Conor, but it was confident that Furado could become a better substitute pitcher. On top of that, Reyes renewed his contract for $1.2 million.
In addition to recruiting Furado, he also recruited FA big fish Choi Won-tae. It is an additional reinforcement of the starting lineup by spending up to 7 billion won for four years. There have been regrets about the postseason over the past two years when he played for the LG Twins, but Choi Won-tae is still a resource to win 10 games.
With Choi Won-tae, Samsung is able to build a solid first to fourth starters. At the same time, the competition for the fifth starting pitcher became fiercer. Baek Jung-hyun is no longer a guaranteed starting pitcher and has to compete with Lee Seung-hyun and Hwang Dong-jae.
As much as the fierce competition, Samsung's starting mound can be stronger. It is also an expression of the club's strong will to win the 2025 season.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
