“I feel responsibility, pressure and pressure. But on the contrary, I feel happy and happy.”
Ko Young-pyo, who signed a non-FA multi-year contract for the first time in the KT Wiz club, is preparing for the season with sweat at Hyundai Motor Dream Ball Park in Gijang, Busan.월카지노
KT announced on May 25 that it signed a non-FA multi-year contract with pitcher Ko Young-pyo for a total of 10.7 billion won (9.5 billion won in guarantee, 1.2 billion won in option). It was the first non-FA multi-year contract and the first non-FA multi-year contract worth more than 10 billion won.
After graduating from Hwasun High School and Dongkuk University, Ko was selected by KT as the 10th overall pick in the first round of the second round of the 2014 KBO rookie draft. Ko started to shine in the 2021 season. Having resolved military issues as a social service worker, Ko recorded an ERA of 2.92 with 130 strikeouts and 41 strikeouts in 26 games and 166 ⅔ innings. It was his first double-digit victory since his debut.
Since then, in the 2022 season of 2022, he has recorded a 3.26 ERA in 156 strikeouts with 39 outs and 182 ⅓ in 28 games (27 starts) and a 2.78 ERA in 114 strikeouts with 28 outs and 174 ⅔ in 28 games (27 starts) in the 2023 season.
Ko was able to enter the free agent market after the 2024 season ended, but she continued by joining hands with KT. “I thought it would be nothing different, but after experiencing it, I feel a sense of responsibility, burden and pressure,” Ko said honestly. “On the contrary, I feel both joy and happiness.”
He could have entered the FA market. However, Ko Young-pyo joined hands with KT and effectively declared the end of KT. “You might be curious how other teams see me. However, my original team treated me like this, and in a way, I’m not doing it to anyone,” Ko said. “Since KT’s contract terms were good enough, I think I finished it because I could play for a long time and play baseball with good juniors rather than going to the FA market.”
This season, KT has established strong starting pitchers William Cuevas, Wes Benjamin, Ko Young-pyo and Um Sang-baek. However, Bae Je-seong, who served as the fifth starting pitcher last season, joined the military. He has to secure the fifth starting pitcher position until So returns.
If one of the four starters collapses, it could feel like a huge hole in the starting rotation. “When a bank collapses, the water is rushing in like a flood. I and I, Sang-baek, have built our bodies hard and have confidence in ourselves during the off-season. However, all of a sudden, one could feel a great pain somewhere, or one could get injured. I think we need to prepare well for the season and take good care of ourselves so that we don’t get injured,” Ko said.
Ko Young-pyo became the first player in the KBO league to record 20QS for three consecutive years by achieving 21 quality starts (QS, more than six innings and less than three earned runs) for three consecutive years from the 2021 season to the 2023 season. Regarding this season’s goal, he said, “QS is a goal because it’s something I’ve always done. I haven’t set a big target figure, but I want to keep my ERA and keep throwing 160-170 innings,” adding, “I can’t do anything about winning, but I think I want to do more.”