"Isn't it 100% a loss?" 10 years later, a huge trade changed the fate of the youngest team

"Isn't it 100% a loss?" 10 years later, a huge trade changed the fate of the youngest team

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KT and Lotte changed the history of the KBO league on May 2, 2015. It realized an all-time trade in which as many as nine players came and went.카지노사이트

KT gave up Park Se-woong, Lee Sung-min, Cho Hyun-woo and Ahn Jung-yeol to Lotte, and made a four-to-five trade in which it received Jang Sung-woo, Choi Dae-sung, Yoon Yeo-woon, Lee Chang-jin and Ha Joon-ho from Lotte. It was the first time in the history that nine players moved through trade. It exceeded the previous record of 6 to 2 trade between Samsung and SK in 2001.

The main players of the trade were Park and Jang. Although KT welcomed the offer, saying, "We have recruited Jang, who has a good pitcher lead and excellent offense," critics say that it has used Park, who was once the best prospect in the team, as a trade card. Fans reacted furiously, saying, "How can we trade the ace of the future," and "It is a loss of 100 percent."

Park Se-woong has grown into a "native ace" at Lotte, as many fans expected. Last year, he slowed down with 6 wins and 11 losses and a 4.78 ERA, but in 2021-2022, he won 10 games for two consecutive years, and in 2023, he played for the World Baseball Classic (WBC) and the Hangzhou Asian Games, while maintaining the pride of Lotte's mound by playing 9 wins, 7 losses and a 3.45 ERA. Lotte also treated Park Se-woong as a franchise star by signing a non-FA multi-year contract for a five-year total of 9 billion won.

Then, what happened to KT that embraces Jang Sung-woo? From KT's point of view, it can be said that the trade changed its fate. KT, which had weak home turf, gained momentum with the addition of Jang. Jang Sung-woo, who was hidden under the shadow of an outstanding catcher named Kang Min-ho when he was with the Lotte Giants, also marked a turning point in his baseball career.
When Jang moved to KT from Lotte, he only had a batting average of .245 with three homers and 12 RBIs in 22 games. However, Jang, who monopolized the home turf at KT, turned the tables with a batting average of .284 with 13 homers and 77 RBIs in 133 games into a reality.

KT, which was unable to overcome the limits of its youngest team at the time of the trade, resolved its home turf concerns by acquiring Jang Sung-woo, a "10-year catcher," and became an emerging prestigious team by winning its first 50% win rate in 2019, its first postseason advance in 2020, and its long-awaited first unified championship in 2021. KT made a miraculous postseason advance last year, winning a ticket to fall baseball for the fifth consecutive year.

Jang Sung-woo, who has been with KT's brilliant history, exercised his first career FA right at the end of the 2021 season and signed a four-year contract with KT for a total of 4.2 billion won. Soon, the last year of this season's FA contract has dawned. Jang Sung-woo has performed well over the past three years, worth 4.2 billion won. In particular, he hit .268 with 19 home runs and 81 RBIs in 131 games last year, even setting career highs in home runs and RBIs. KT manager Lee Kang-chul showed deep trust in Jang Sung-woo to the center line.

In the end, Jang failed to achieve his first 20 home runs, but he didn't mind. "I played for 17 years in the pro league, and I don't think hitting 20 home runs really means a lot. Rather, I felt better when I hit 80 RBIs," Jang said, adding more significance to his accumulation of more RBIs.

What would have happened if KT had not made the trade then? This is something KT does not even want to imagine. Of course, Lotte, which acquired the "native ace," cannot be said to have failed trade either. However, it is true that the trade involving Jang played a decisive role in KT's transition from a lower-ranked team to a newly established reputation. Attention is focusing on how Jang will lead KT's baseball this season after breaking the No. 2 player's eggs.