The Lotte Giants reinforced their left-handed resources through a blitz trade. He made the most suitable recruitment for the current team situation.
On the 19th, Lotte announced that it “carried out a one-on-one trade to recruit KT Wiz pitcher Shim Jae-min (29) and give away infielder Lee Ho-yeon (28).” According to the club officials, Shim Jae-min is expected to join the team this weekend.먹튀검증
After graduating from Kaesong Middle School and Gaesong High School, Shim Jae-min joined KT as a priority for the new team in the 2014 rookie draft. Since his amateur days, he has received a lot of attention as a large prospect, and KT also showed expectations by giving him a down payment of 250 million won.
Sim Jae-min, who debuted with KT’s entry into the first team in 2015, played an active part in KT’s pitching staff by consistently playing more than 40 innings a year, except for the military service period, until last year. In 2017, he pitched 64 games, 74⅔ innings, recording 13 holds, and was also selected for the Asian Professional Baseball Championship (APBC) national team held that year. After completing his military service, in the 2021 season, he posted an ERA of 2.89 in 28 games and contributed to the team’s unified championship.
Shim Jae-min, who was sluggish with an ERA of 22.50 in 4 games with the 1st team this season, has been steadily climbing the mound since going down to the 2nd team. As of the 19th, he went 1 win, 1 loss, 1 hold, and an average ERA of 1.59 in 8 games, and while he was slowly finding his senses, he moved the team through a trade.
After the trade announcement, Lotte said, “We expect that the depth of the left-handed pitcher will be strengthened through the recruitment of Shim Jae-min, who has a lot of experience as a middle pitcher.” As the club said, Lotte is currently in need of left-handed resources.
As of the 19th, when the trade was concluded, three left-handed pitchers, Charlie Barnes (28), Kim Jin-wook (21), and Lee Tae-yeon (19), were registered in Lotte’s first-team entry. Among them, only Kim Jin-wook and Lee Tae-yeon remain, excluding Barnes, who is the starting resource. Even then, Lee Tae-yeon was a registered player in the first team that day.
Jinwook Kim. /Photo = Courtesy of Lotte Giants
Taeyeon Lee.
Kim Jin-wook has appeared in 18 games this year and has achieved a decent record of 2 wins, 1 loss and 4 holds with an ERA of 2.12. He plays an important role in the bullpen through his powerful pitches, recording a hit rate of 0.158. However, you cannot complete a season with only Kim Jin-wook.
Lee Tae-yeon, who entered the opening entry as a rookie high school graduate, is recording an ERA of 9.00 in 10 games. He shows potential, but he is a player who still needs to improve, as he has gone 4 games without getting a single out count.
Looking back to the second team, the only left-hander with an immediate sense of power is veteran Cha Woo-chan (36), who was recruited ahead of this season. Even that condition has not risen yet, and it is a situation that cannot be used right away.
Lotte’s left-handed famine was also revealed in the game on the 19th. Lotte, who had a 4-1 lead at the beginning of the 8th inning, was driven into a crisis with 2 companies on 1st and 3rd base. Opponent SSG put in veteran left-handed hitter Choo Shin-soo (41) as a pinch hitter, and Lotte counterattacked with Lee Tae-yeon. However, Lee Tae-yeon got a right-handed hit from Choo Shin-soo from the first pitch, and ended up going down the mound. It unintentionally provided the justification for recruiting Shim Jae-min.
However, Shim Jae-min cannot write right away. Seong Min-kyu, general manager of Lotte, said, “Sim Jae-min is not in good physical condition at the moment,” and “I judged it as a resource that can strengthen the depth of the bullpen in the second half.” Shim Jae-min’s fastball speed, which was 142.1 km per hour on average last year, has come down to 136.4 km per hour this year (based on Stats). Although the sample is small, it can be seen that his physical condition was not the best.
However, Shim Jae-min is a proven resource to some extent. Accordingly, Lee Ho-yeon, who is recording a batting average of 40% (0.433) in the 2nd team this year, was brought in by giving up. Also, since he went to middle and high school in Busan, it is expected that there will be no big difficulties in adapting.
This season, the season will be held normally during the second half of the Hangzhou Asian Games. While Kim Jin-wook was likely to be selected, Lotte boldly traded after watching the second half.