Hanwha Eagles manager Kim Kyung-moon decided that Wang Yen-cheng’s season was over and reorganized the remaining starting rotation.
With Hanwha out of postseason contention, the team is at a point where it must consider both protecting its players and creating its next opportunities, rather than trying to reverse its results.
The roles given to young players such as Jung Woo-joo in the remaining games will show manager Kim’s choices.
3-Line Summary
1. Manager Kim Kyung-moon decided that Wang Yen-cheng’s season was over
2. Jung Woo-joo will receive an opportunity after starting in the minors
3. The remaining games are a time to protect and assess the players
Wang Yen-cheng Will Not Pitch Again
Before the Kiwoom game at Daejeon Hanwha Life Ballpark on October 3, manager Kim Kyung-moon said that Wang Yen-cheng was not expected to make another start. Considering his knee injury and the pitching workload he had carried so far, Kim judged that there was no need to push him.
Wang Yen-cheng himself indicated that he was willing to take the mound even with his knee taped, but manager Kim prioritized protecting the player. At the end of the season, the needs of a single game and a player’s preparations for the following season can easily come into conflict. This decision can be understood as a choice not to increase the risk of injury, even if it meant accepting an immediate gap in the starting rotation.
Ryu Hyun-jin and Park Jun-young have also finished their seasons because of injuries and efforts to manage their condition. With Wang Yen-cheng now unavailable as well, Hanwha’s options for managing its starting rotation have narrowed further. The changes to the rotation are therefore not simply an adjustment of order; they are a variable changing the criteria for player usage in the remaining games.
A Starting Opportunity Foreshadowed for Jung Woo-joo
Manager Kim said that he had originally planned to watch Jung Woo-joo more after the season ended, but that he would give him a starting opportunity before the final game of the regular season if Jung looked good starting in the minors. This was not a confirmed announcement of a start, but a plan to make a judgment after reviewing his performance in the minors.
Jung Woo-joo was sent down to the minors in July and returned to the first team in August, but was removed from the roster again because of poor results. However, in this season’s Futures League, he recorded an earned-run average of 0.84 and 15 strikeouts. The reason manager Kim mentioned a minor-league start as an evaluation criterion was to confirm how Jung handled the starting role, rather than a short outing.
The opportunities in the remaining games are not simply about increasing the number of appearances. Whether a player can pitch as a starter and perform his role within the flow of a game will serve as the basis for the next judgment. That is precisely the condition manager Kim presented to Jung Woo-joo.
Why Praise and Evaluation Were Deferred Until After the Season
On October 1, manager Kim said that he would evaluate Heo In-seo after the final game of the regular season. At that point, Heo In-seo had recorded 20 home runs in 124 games, and it had been 37 years since a Hanwha catcher had hit 20 home runs in a single season, following Yoo Seung-an in 1989.
Even so, manager Kim said that a catcher needs more experience and a process of learning. He meant that he would not immediately treat the statistics as a final evaluation, but would watch to see whether Heo carried out his role through the end of the season. Jung Woo-joo’s starting opportunity and the postponement of Heo In-seo’s evaluation are both connected to an approach that examines the process as much as the results in the remaining games.
Hanwha has already failed to reach the postseason. That does not mean the remaining games have lost their meaning. Along with filling the gap in the starting rotation, manager Kim Kyung-moon’s choices are becoming a process of identifying which players will receive the next opportunities.
References
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