A ray of hope blossomed in despair.
The Lotte Giants had a hard time on the mound this year. Charlie Barnes, Aaron Wilkerson, and foreigners did their part. The two were among the top two players in the league. However, other native players showed poor performance.
Park Se-woong, who had to serve as the ace pitcher for native players, stirred anxiety by displaying up-and-down pitching from the middle of the season. Na Kyun-an and Lee In-bok, who had to serve as starting four to five players, failed to join the team early on due to poor performance. Notably, Na Kyun-an was even given disciplinary action as she became embroiled in controversy over her personal history before the season and her personal life during the season.
The situation was even worse for the bullpen. Closer Kim Won-joong kept his position, but failed to keep his team's victory at a critical juncture, putting his team in a quagmire. Koo Seung-min, who was the duo of Kim Won-joong and his soul, also failed to instill faith in Kim as he suffered ups and downs throughout the season. His dependence on Kim Sang-soo was inevitably severe throughout the season.
Many injured. Rookie pitcher Jeon Mir had sensational performance in the early days of this season, but failed to make the first team roster in the second half due to poor performance and injury. Choi, who was a must-win candidate, took the surgery table to recover from shoulder pain, which he had been suffering from. Choi, who had shown good performance as a long relief pitcher, was also sidelined in the end due to cartilage damage in his right shoulder.
It's not that he didn't have a new face. Kim Jin-wook, a left-hander in his fourth year who failed to display his potential, secured the starting position once and completed the starting rotation without leaving until the end of the season. Catcher-turned-pitcher Kim Kang-hyun also brightened up the possibility by playing the role of a chasing team. And the best player on the Lotte mound this year was Park Jin (25), a fifth-year pitcher who was not expected much.
Park Jin, a Busan High School native who joined the second round of the rookie draft in 2019, made a full-fledged appearance in the first team this year. After playing only two games in the first team in 2019, he immediately resolved his military service by serving in the active duty.
From 2021 to 2023, he appeared more in the second division than in the first division. He played in only six games in the first division until last year. This year, however, he pitched in 38 games, recording a record of two wins, four losses and one save with an ERA of 4.38 in 49 ⅓ innings. 스포츠토토
He quietly survived from this year's spring camp to the opening entry. Although he served in the second division twice, he has been in the first division since June. Since then, he has had an opportunity to play the role of a chasing team. In the match against Changwon NC Dinos on July 28, closing pitcher Kim Won-joong committed a blon save, but scored four runs in the top of the extended 10th inning to take the lead 10-6. Then, Kim Kang-hyun and Jin Hae-soo caused himself a crisis with runners on the first and second bases with no outs. In the bottom of the 10th inning, Park Jin-young took the mound with runners on the first and second bases loaded with no outs. In a crisis, Park Jin-young recorded one strikeout and no run in one inning to post his first save since his debut.