Kang Jung-ho → Park Byung-ho → Kim Ha-sung → Lee Jung-hoo → Kim Hye-sung. Is it the devil's turn next. But we have to wait four more years. Why?
Jan 04, 2025
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Kang Jung-ho left for the Pittsburgh Pirates through the posting system after the 2014 season, and Park Byung-ho headed to the Minnesota Twins the following year. Although it has been a while, Kiwoom players have been actively entering the U.S. again recently. Kim Ha-sung signed a 4+1 year, up to $39 million contract with the San Diego Padres after the 2020 season, and Lee Jung-hoo transferred to the San Francisco Giants after the 2023 season as the highest contract for Korean players to advance to the Major League with a total of $113 million for six years.
And Kim Hye-sung signed a 3+2 year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers on the 4th for up to $22 million and succeeded in entering the Major League.
Now, attention is drawn to who will be Kiwoom's next major leaguer.
As of now, Ahn Woo-jin is drawing the most attention. Ahn Woo-jin, who joined as the first designated player in 2018, failed to show his appearance due to early injuries, but he exploded his potential with a huge 15-8 record and 2.11 ERA in 196 innings in 2022. In that year, he won two awards for ERA and strikeouts and won the Golden Glove. In 2023, he pitched 150 ⅔ innings, showing good performance with 9 wins and 7 losses and a 2.39 ERA, but he underwent ligament bonding surgery due to an elbow injury in September and joined the military as a social service worker in December. He is scheduled to be released from the convocation in September this year, so he will return until next season.
He threw six years from 2018 to 2023, but only two years in 2022 and 2023 have filled the FA registration days due to injuries. The total number of FA years is four years, and three more years must be played to fill the seven years that can be advanced overseas through posting. If you play full-time healthy from 2026 to 2028, you can challenge the Major League through posting after 2028 season. Of course, it is natural to show good performance during those three years.
It is regrettable that Ahn Woo-jin cannot play for the national team due to school violence in high school, so he cannot throw at international competitions, but there is no problem with overseas expansion because major league scouts can check it with their recent appearance in the KBO League.
Since he throws in the KBO League until the age of 29 and enters the Major League at the age of 30, he is older than Kim Ha-sung and Lee Jung-hoo Kim Hye-sung, who posted at the age of 26, but he can make a big hit because he is a starting pitcher.
All five sent by Kiwoom have been hitters. Will Ahn Woo-jin be the first major league pitcher Kiwoom produces. There is still a lot of time left.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
