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Will KIA Tigers closer Jung Hae-young (24) be able to defend the throne of 'King of Guwon'. It is a task that no one has succeeded in the past 10 years in the KBO League.
The recent KBO League save war is in the Spring and Autumn Warring States era. 'Continuous Redemption King' can only be found back in 2014. In 2013 and 2014, Son Seung-rak (current KIA coach, Nexen at the time) ranked first in saves. Since then, the position of Save King has changed every year until 2024. There is no first place twice, let alone in a row during this period. All 10 are new faces.
Lim Chang-yong (retired, then Samsung), 2016 Kim Se-hyun (retired, then Nexen), 2017 Son Seung-rak (current Hanwha coach), 2018 Jung Woo-ram (currently Hanwha coach), 2019 Ha Jae-hoon (SSG), 2020 Sang-woo (currently Nexen), 2021 Oh Seung-hwan (Samsung), 2022 Go Woo-seok (currently Miami Marlins, then LG) 2023 Seo Jin-yong (SSG) was the save king.
Last year, Jung Hae-young stood tall as the league's best finish. Jung Hae-young recorded a 2.49 ERA with 2 wins, 3 losses, 31 saves and 1 hold in 50 ⅔ innings in 53 games in the 2024 season. Jung Hae-young has harvested 121 saves in the past four seasons. His career ERA is also very low at 2.81. Since his debut in 2020, he has exceeded 60 innings (65 ⅓ in 2021). I also received good care. From an early age, he played without any ups and downs and opened his heyday.
However, looking at the previous case, it is too early to be relieved. Ko Woo-seok, who ranked No. 1 in relief with 42 saves in 2022, slowed down to 15 saves in 2023. Seo Jin-yong was also No. 1 with 42 saves in 2023, but he resigned from his final position in 2024.
There are many strong competitors who will challenge Jung Hae-young this year.
First of all, attention is focused on Oh Seung-hwan (43, Samsung), who is second in saves last season. Oh Seung-hwan seems to have shown off his strong performance by making 27 saves, but his ERA was high at 4.91. At the end, he was sluggish and was also excluded from the Korean Series entry. It is expected that Oh Seung-hwan will recover his honor with 427 saves in the KBO League.
We are also curious about the second year of rookie award Kim Taek-yeon (20, Doosan). In 2024, Kim Taek-yeon opened a new chapter in the league as a `high school rookie.' He made 19 saves by playing heavy fastballs reminiscent of Oh Seung-hwan. There are concerns about the second-year jinx, but there is a hope that it will grow further after adapting to the professional world.
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LG's new closer Jang Hyun-sik is also a dark horse. Jang Hyun-sik played as a setup man in front of Jung Hae-young in KIA's uniform last year. It signed a large FA contract worth 5.2 billion won with LG this winter. LG selected Jang Hyun-sik as a new closure as closer Yoo Young-chan, who recorded 26 saves, got on the operating table. Jang Hyun-sik has seven total saves.
Lotte's Kim Won-joong is also consistently at the top of the save category. Kim Won-joong made double-digit saves for five consecutive years and accumulated 132 saves. KT Park Young-hyun stood tall as a national relief pitcher at once with 32 holds in 2023 and 25 saves in 2024.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
