Biggest FA pitcher reservation. Lee Young-ha of Doosan joins Yomiuri camp! → Kim Min-gyu, Park Shin-ji, Park Woong, and other juniors will be taken in droves

Jan 04, 2025

The 2024 WBSC Premier 12 warm-up match between the Korean baseball team and the Cuban national team was held at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on the 1st. Lee Young-ha is warming up. Gocheok = Reporter Park Jae-man pjm@sportschosun.com /2024.11.01/

Lee Young-ha is pitching hard in a practice game between the Premier 12 baseball team and Sangmu at Gocheok Sky Dome on the 6th. Gocheok = Reporter Heo Sang-wook wook@sportschosun.com /2024.11.06/

Pre-FA Doosan Bears right-hander Lee Young-ha will join the Yomiuri Giants camp, a prestigious Japanese professional baseball team, to prepare for the season. Lee Young-ha even took junior pitchers such as Kim Min-gyu, Park Shin-ji, and Park Woong.

Lee Young-ha departed for Miyazaki, Japan, on the 3rd and started spring camp before others. Doosan pitchers, including Lee Young-ha, participated in the pre-minicamp, which includes Yomiuri's first-team players and semi-mainstream players. Lee Young-ha shared the opportunity with his juniors through his friendship with Togo Shosei, the Yomiuri ace and the starting pitcher for the last Premier 12 final.

Togo is an ace with 12 wins, 8 losses and a 1.95 ERA in 26 games and 180 innings in the NPB in the 2024 season.

Lee Young-ha will start tempering at the Yomiuri minicamp for the second consecutive year.

Lee Young-ha was introduced to the program through the agency ahead of the 2024 season. Lee Young-ha became close to Togo a year ago when he built his body here. Lee kept in touch with Togo even during the season.

They reunited for the first time in a long time during the Premier 12 Korea-Japan match in November last year. At the meeting, Lee Young-ha expressed his hope to Togo to prepare for the 2025 season together. This time, he asked if he could accompany other young pitchers. Togo conveyed this intention to the Yomiuri club. It was accomplished when Yomiuri readily accepted it.

Lee Young-ha showed off her junior colleagues' expenses to a certain extent. Lee Young-ha continued to communicate with Togo, who had a relationship early last year. Thanks to this, Togo seems to have provided a good place again. I've prepared well for the season for the second consecutive year." Regarding the reason why he even recommended his teammates, Lee Young-ha said, `If both me and Kim Min-gyu, Park Shin-ji and Park Woong show good performance in the 2025 season, it will be of great help to the team as well as personally.'

Sportschosun DB

Lee Young-ha devoted himself by acting as a yardstick in line with the needs of the team in 2024. He played 65 ⅓ innings in a total of 59 games, including one start and 58 relief games. He had five wins, four losses, two saves with a 3.99 ERA. The data with evenly recorded games, innings and win-hold saves tells the value of Lee Young-ha. The annual salary also rose 80% from 100 million won to 180 million won.

Lee Young-ha will be eligible for FA at the end of this season. Lee Young-ha is a pitcher with high utilization value in both selection and relief. It is expected that the value of the FA market will be significant just by playing full-time easily until this year. If it is revived to the heyday when it won 17 games, it is by far the biggest fish reservation.

Lee Young-ha made her professional debut in 2017. He recorded a total of 282 games (98 starts and 184 relief times) in eight seasons with 56 wins, 42 losses, 13 holds, 9 saves and an ERA of 4.77.

He became a 10-win pitcher for the second consecutive year with 10 wins and 3 losses in 2018 and 17 wins and 4 losses in 2019, but has since suffered a slump. After going through the Yomiuri minicamp in 2024, Lee Young-ha regained his solid form again.

This article was translated by Naver AI translator.