In September 2019, the Lotte Giants appointed general manager Seong Min-gyu, a former major league scout. The young and fresh new director continued to make new attempts, including introducing cutting-edge programs using ‘process’ as the keyword.
There was a time when I had expectations that ‘Lotte could change’ when I saw Director Seong Min-gyu’s confident appearance during the interview. But looking back, it was just a facade. Now, four years later, I would like to ask what was actually done and what was the effect of the process.
Lotte suffered from a catcher shortage after Kang Min-ho transferred to Samsung. When Lee Ji-young and Kim Tae-gun appeared on the free agent market, they presented contract terms and asked for an answer within 48 hours. Ultimately, negotiations collapsed. I wondered if it was a proper negotiation to set a time limit and ask for an answer, rather than sentencing the player to death. From what I found, the conditions presented to Lee Ji-young and Kim Tae-gun were not very good.
Lotte said it would strengthen its home defense by recruiting Ji-Wan Ji-Wan through a trade instead of Ji-Young Lee and Tae-Gun Kim. It is not the intention to disparage Ji-Wan, but it has already been concluded that he is not an immediate first-team player in terms of skill. In particular, as a catcher, he was constantly evaluated as being unfavorable to pitchers due to his distinct weakness in throwing and his lack of blocking ability. As expected, the recruitment effect was minimal.
A few years later, two big catchers, Park Dong-won and Yoo Kang-nam, came up for sale in the free agent market. In the baseball world, the prevailing opinion was that Park Dong-won was one step ahead, but Lotte’s choice was different. A total of 8 billion won was given to Yoo Kang-nam over four years. LG signed a free agent contract with Park Dong-won for 6.5 billion won. Looking at the results alone, LG’s choice was the right one. If they had recruited Lee Ji-young or Kim Tae-gun, they would have been able to kill two birds with one stone: results and cost savings.
After General Manager Seong Min-gyu took office, Lotte called in coaches who had been notified by other clubs that their contracts could not be renewed. In a way, it was closer to taking care of my family. If those who played for Lotte in the past and really love Lotte were recruited as coaches, the team atmosphere would likely have improved. Because of this situation, there were more people who were focused on tightrope walking with the dream of extending their lives rather than uniting to achieve team performance. 메이저사이트
The various state-of-the-art systems he advocated at the beginning of his tenure also did not operate properly. Even though I took one step at a time, it wasn’t enough, so I just took a step back. In this way, Director Seong Min-gyu’s process ended poorly with a fatal error, rather than success.
Lotte announced that it has hired a new coach, Kim Tae-hyung, and is looking for the next general manager. I don’t know who will be the new general manager, but I just hope he doesn’t repeat the same mistake. By the way, who is responsible for Lotte’s four lost years?
/Chae Tae-in, CEO of Batting Research Institute
# Chae Tae-in, CEO of Batting Research Institute, debuted in the KBO League as a special overseas team designation in 2007 and played for Samsung, Nexen, Lotte, and SK. He played in 1,241 career games, batting . After retiring from active duty, he worked as an amateur coach and currently runs a baseball school under his name in Busan.