With the opening of the season last year, Lotte has embarked on massive supplementation of free agents. It has recruited three external free agents from the free agent market and made a bold decision to invest a total of 17 billion won (approx.안전놀이터
Lotte, which had suffered a “catcher shortage” since its flagship catcher Kang Min-ho left the Lotte Marines as an FA, sought to bring in Yoo Kang-nam in the FA market to resolve its most prominent weaknesses. Lotte also agreed to a four-year contract worth 8 billion won (8 million U.S. dollars). Lotte also desperately needed to strengthen its shortstop position. Therefore, it signed a four-year contract worth 5 billion won with Noh Jin-hyuk. On top of that, Lotte ended its massive reinforcement by signing a three-plus-year contract worth 4 billion won with all-weather pitcher Han Hyun-hee.
Last year’s report card was against their expectations. Yoo Kang-nam played in 121 games with a batting average of .261, 10 homers and 55 RBIs, Roh Jin-hyuk played in 113 games with a batting average of .257, four homers and 51 RBIs, and seven steals, while Han Hyun-hee only played in 38 games with six wins, 12 losses and three holds and an ERA of 5.45. This was one of the biggest reasons Lotte ended the season in seventh place.
The situation is even worse this year. Yoo Kang-nam, who received attention through his meeting with catcher-turned-man Kim Tae-hyung, suffered severe slump with a .122 two-run batting average between March and April alone, and is currently out for the season after leaving a .191 five-homer and 20 RBIs in 52 games. The last game of this season against LG at Jamsil Stadium on June 16 is left.
Yoo Kang-nam underwent a suture of the internal meniscus cartilage in his left knee in July. Initially, he put weight on rehabilitation, but decided that surgery was better from a long-term perspective. A Lotte official said, “If a player chooses rehabilitation, he can return quickly from the club’s point of view, which could be a plus for the team in a short period of time, but from a long-term point of view, we decided that it would be better to perform surgery quickly. Yoo Kang-nam is a key player in the club and has to play a bigger role in the future, so we decided to have surgery for a healthy career.”
It was a major surgery that lasted for seven months. Due to Yoo Kang-nam’s absence, Lotte is currently playing the rest of the season with young catchers including Son Seong-bin, Information-geun, and Kang Tae-yul. As the players are inexperienced, they often make mistakes. Manager Kim Tae-hyung often expressed frustration, saying, “The same mistakes occur often. We have to watch the situation and flow of the game, but we can’t sign autographs every time on the bench.” As the team has to lead catchers who are not fully skilled to the next five teams, it is a difficult task.
Roh, who has given up the title of his main shortstop, is also showing serious performance. This year, Roh has a batting average of .219 with two homers and 11 RBIs in 64 games. While Roh has performed poorly, Park Seung-wook hit the shortstop. Park has a batting average of .261 with five homers and 44 RBIs in 121 games this season.
As Park took a short break due to side pain last month, Noh seemed to be making another leap forward. Manager Kim Tae-hyung put Noh in the starting lineup despite Park’s recovery from injury in the match against Daegu Samsung on April 25. “Roh has a very good batting sense,” said the coach. However, he made a fatal mistake in the match, betraying the coach’s trust. Perhaps he lost his last chance to return to the starting shortstop.
Han Hyun-hee, who once claimed to be “paying for the meal,” has also shown serious sluggishness lately. As an all-weather pitcher, Han played the role of a housekeeper for the mound in the first half of 25 games, 43 innings, three wins, two losses and one hold, with an earned run average of 3.98. However, he ended up with an earned run average of 7.30 with one win and five holds in 24 ⅔ innings in 23 games in the second half. Notably, he pitched only two ⅓ innings in four games in September, displaying a whopping 30.86 in ERA. This is why Lotte is using Na Kyun-an as a bullpen pitcher after he returned from disciplinary action against the club itself. “If he likes Na, I will try to use Na Kyun-an as a starter, but he is not good these days,” manager Kim Tae-hyung sighed.
The presumption that baseball is “if” does not exist, but what if the “three free agents” that Lotte recruited at a huge cost were able to live up to their value? Wouldn’t it have produced a better result than Lotte’s record of 57 wins, 65 losses, and four draws (.467 win rate) in 126 games? Lotte is still ranked eighth, and is 3.5 games behind KT, which is ranked fifth. A series of poor performances by free agents, who are supposed to maintain the balance of the team, are facing a critical blow at a critical moment.