Lotte Giants manager Larry Sutton made the decision to remove left-hander Kim Jin-wook and right-hander Kim Sang-soo from the first team roster ahead of the team’s eighth game of the season against the KT Wiz on 7 July.
Kim Jin-wook and Kim Sang-soo have been the mainstays of the Lotte bullpen this season. Kim went 2-1 with a 2.82 ERA in 27 games with five saves, and Kim Sang-soo went 3-1 with a 3.32 ERA in 29 games with one save and eight saves, making him one of the best middle relievers in the league. The two pitchers have been instrumental in Lotte’s current third-place finish.
However, both Kim Jin-wook and Kim Sang-soo have struggled recently. In his last five appearances, Kim Sang-soo has given up five runs on nine hits in 3⅓ innings, while Kim Jin-wook has given up three runs on five hits in two innings. Compared to their peak form, they are not dominating hitters.
Sutton said, “Kim Jin-wook and Kim Sang-soo are down physically. We decided to take advantage of the 10-day window and give them some time to recover and reset,” Sutton explained.토토사이트
That doesn’t mean they’re taking it easy. Kim went straight into a Futures League game against Samsung’s second team on the 7th, pitching one inning of one-hit ball with two strikeouts. Kim is not scheduled to pitch in the Futures Game, but he is open to taking the mound for the second team at any time depending on his condition.
While it’s tempting to give physically exhausted pitchers two or three days of rest and then pitch in a first-team game to get them back in shape, Lotte made the bold decision to keep Kim and Kim Jin-wook out of the first team for at least 10 days.
“Kim Sang-soo and Kim Jin-wook will focus on their recovery, but Kim Jin-wook is expected to continue playing in the Futures Game,” Sutton said, emphasising that “it’s not like they’ve been on holiday for 10 days.”
“As a manager, you always want to put your best pitcher out there to win the game, but baseball is a human game, and if you keep pushing, there’s a point, a moment, where you’re going to break or get hurt, and you need to manage it. When they need to rest, he gives them a break, and when they need to train, he pushes them through exercises and transforms them into performers. We talked about this a lot.”
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