Lotte's first wish of the offseason came true... What's next? Should I trade again
Lotte's first wish of the offseason came true... What's next? Should I trade again
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Lotte manager Kim Tae-hyung was generally supporting Kim Won-joong (32), the closing pitcher of the team, at the end of the 2024 season. He expressed his wish and regret that he would play against the opposing batters more aggressively, but stressed that there is no right player within the team who can replace Kim Won-joong's finishing pitcher. He thus expressed his trust. In the process, there were naturally talks about Kim's qualification as a free agent, and Kim said, "The front desk side will support Kim Won-joong," without much worry.메이저사이트
At that time, there were ups and downs in performance, and the industry was relatively hot due to the evaluation of Kim Won-joong, who will become a free agent after the season. However, Kim said, "If such Kim Won-joong leaves, there would be no substitute for closing pitcher in the team. So, I hoped that the team would treat him appropriately and catch him. Even if he was actually throwing well in the bullpen, there was no guarantee that he would go to the closing pitcher and do well. Kim was already a veteran player who had gone through all such trials and errors.
After graduating from Gwangju Dongseong High School and receiving Lotte's first-round pick in 2012, Kim Won-joong was a highly anticipated player as a starting resource in his early career. Many leaders who passed through Lotte even tried to raise Kim Won-joong. Ultimately, he did not have much success as a starter, but he turned into a bullpen in 2020 and contributed to his team as a closer. Kim made 25 saves in 2020, 35 saves in 2021, 17 saves in 2022, and 30 saves in 2023. In 2024, his ERA jumped slightly to 3.55 in 56 games, but he made 25 saves, not being pushed out of the team's finish line.
Manager Kim Tae-hyung's and Lotte's wishes have been realized for now. He succeeded in pressing Kim Won-joong, who exercised his FA status, relatively quickly. Lotte officially announced on November 10 that it had signed a four-year contract with Kim Won-joong (4.4 billion won in guaranteed amount and 1 billion won in incentives). As soon as the transfer market began, Kim Won-joong was in a hurry to sign a contract, and he was able to stay as he aimed. Kim Won-joong also had no intention of leaving Lotte, and when a proposal in the category he targeted came in, he did not look elsewhere and stamped his seal.
Lotte also signed a 2+2 year contract with Koo Seung-min, the core setup man of the team, for a total of 2.1 billion won (down payment of 300 million won, annual salary of 1.2 billion won, incentive of 600 million won), and ended its crackdown on internal free agents. It is true that both Kim Won-joong and Koo Seung-min had lower performance in 2024 than their previous performance, which caused concern. However, Lotte's bullpen needed a focal point, and it was not certain that it could find a substitute for them immediately.
As a result, Lotte's loss of off-season capability is not negatively affected. While Jeon Mir took the surgery, the team's performance did not have the capacity in the second half of last year anyway. On the contrary, the team does not have many positive factors. Lotte, which recently spent a considerable amount of money in the free agent market, is nearing the cap on its competition balance sheet. As of 2024, Lotte's competition balance sheet amounted to 11.15 billion won (approx. Although the cap on salary will be increased in 2025, a significant portion of the increase was spent on Kim Won-joong and Koo Seung-min.
Lotte, which tried to run for the postseason ahead of the 2023 season, invested a total of 17 billion won in Yoo Kang-nam, Roh Jin-hyuk, and Han Hyun-hee. Ahead of the 2024 season, it signed a four-year contract with Jeon Joon-woo, the team's franchise star, for a total of up to 4.7 billion won. However, as external FA did not perform as well as expected, team salary liquidity has been largely blocked. There is not much room to move until all of their contracts are over. We can only expect players to rebound, but in the meantime, players continue to age.
For this reason, it is not certain whether external FA will be able to be strengthened even after the 2025 season ends. It is true that Lotte does not have enough space to move as long as it does not impose sanctions due to exceeding the salary cap in the FA market where a large number of big fish are pouring in. For this reason, attention is focusing again on trade. Ultimately, Kim Tae-hyung, who was hired after taking the helm, will serve a three-year term. To try something during his three-year term that runs through 2026, it is necessary to recruit outside players, and chances are high that he will closely monitor not only the FA but also the trade market.
There was also a success story once. Lotte had deep agony over its lineup in the early 2024 season, but found a breakthrough in the trade market. It acquired Son Ho-young, who had batting talent but was unable to establish himself at LG, through trade, as a huge success. Son had a batting average of 0.317, 18 homers, 78 RBIs and an on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) of 0.892 in 102 games of this season, contributing to Lotte's batting average. Son's joining the team has created synergies across the Lotte lineup, leading to a success beyond its previous record. While no one expects him to engage in trade immediately, there is a possibility that his team will continue to seek to fill in vulnerable positions while monitoring the situation during this season.