What an art Lotte trade...The dream of 40% → No. 1 hit. Who predicted that
What an art Lotte trade...The dream of 40% → No. 1 hit. Who predicted that
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Last year, Lotte acquired infielder Sohn Ho-young (31) through a trade with LG, and achieved a huge success than expected. Son, who was a backup infielder during his time at LG, transformed into a center hitter as soon as he wore Lotte's uniform, and succeeded in turning his life around by posting a career-high performance of .317 with 18 home runs, 78 RBIs and seven steals in 102 games. He also achieved the milestone of hitting in 30 consecutive games, becoming a hot topic of conversation.
Lotte is also showing signs that the player it acquired through a trade will remain a success once again this year. It was only after the end of the last season that Lotte entered into a deal with Doosan. Lotte brought right-hander Jung Cheol-won (26) and infielder Jeon Min-jae (26) to strengthen its bullpen and infielders.
As expected, a man named Jeong Cheol-won received the most attention when the trade was traded. Jung was crowned as the Rookie of the Year by winning 23 holds in 2022, when Lotte coach Kim Tae-hyung took the helm. As manager Kim Tae-hyung said, "I will use Jung as a must-win team," Jung has garnered seven holds as he appeared in a close game, ranking first in the league. It is regrettable, however, that Jung has only an ERA of 6.23 for this season.
On the contrary, there seems to be another star of the mega hit. It is Jeon Min-jae. Initially, Kim focused on the value of using Jeon as a utility player. As recently as January, Kim said, "I got a lot better last year. I have a lot of leeway. I think he will be a very necessary player in our infield right now."
Lotte previously used Jeon as a third baseman after Son Ho-young was out of the team due to a side injury. Since then, the team has been using the strategy of using Jeon as a shortstop and Kim Min-sung as third baseman as soon as the main second baseman Ko Seung-min returned to the team, as shortstop Park Seung-wook and Lee Ho-joon failed to show stable performances. Without Jeon Min-jae, Lotte's infield would have faced another crisis. 안전놀이터
Surprisingly, Jeon Min-jae has been on a tremendous hard hitting streak since he was given the opportunity to start. Jeon Min-jae hit hard with three hits and one stolen base in four at-bats against Doosan Bears in Sajik on the 4th, and has been hitting for nine consecutive games starting with this game. Jeon Min-jae's batting average in nine games is .531 (17 hits in 32 at-bats).
He is now in the regular at-bat. At the match against Sajik NC Dinos on Sunday, Jeon displayed multi hits by posting two hits from three times at bat to increase his batting average for this season to .400. He boasts an impressive batting pace of 20 hits in 50 times at bat. Having played 58 at-bats, he has advanced to the top of the batting average. Even though it is early in the season, it is surprising.
How fast Jeon produced so many hits can be seen by comparing him to Victor Reyes, the "hit king." Reyes, who set a new record for the most hits in a single KBO league season by producing 202 hits last year, is also tied for first in the most hits category this year. Reyes produced 23 hits this season. Jeon is only three short of this.
Nonetheless, he is not an outstanding offensive player. This year, Jeon started seven games as a shortstop, five as a third baseman, and two games as a second baseman, respectively, but has displayed stable defense with only one error. Now, it is hard to imagine a Lotte infield team without Jeon.
At this point, Lotte's trade has almost reached the "level of art." Lotte's trade, which discovered Son Ho-young's "pearl in the soil" last year, was a masterpiece. This year, Jeon Min-jae's strong performance may make Lotte the winner of another trade. Jeon Min-jae is a player who hit .246 with Doosan last year.