Doosan's 'Full Guaranty' batting, which was agonizing over 'only 13 wins from 4'..."Irvin & Hatch" needs to win at least 25 games
Doosan's 'Full Guaranty' batting, which was agonizing over 'only 13 wins from 4'..."Irvin & Hatch" needs to win at least 25 games
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Doosan Bears has completed the composition of a foreign pitcher's one-and-two punch for the 2025 season. Doosan's expectations are very high as it has signed a contract that guarantees the full amount of $1 million (about 1.4 billion won), which does not include options.
Doosan announced on the 19th that it signed a total of $1 million (down payment of 200,000 and annual salary of 800,000 dollars) with foreign pitcher Thomas Hatch.
Doosan has been agonizing over foreign pitchers this year. Doosan joined "Ace" Raul Alcantara, who returned from his Japanese pro baseball career last year with 13 wins, 9 losses and an ERA of 2.67, and Brandon Waddell, who performed better than expected in 18 games with 11 wins, 3 losses and an ERA of 2.49. However, his company was not beautiful.
It was Alcantara who ended the season with Doosan first. Alcantara took off Doosan's uniform just before the All-Star break, only winning two and losing two games with a 4.76 ERA in 12 appearances this year due to injuries and sluggishness. Brandon also had an injury similar to that of Alcantara, and his injury recurred in late June, but Doosan decided that Brandon would be more helpful to the team than Alcantara when he regained his health.
With Alcantara out and Brandon sidelined due to injury, Doosan moved quickly to minimize its power loss. As a result, it hired Jordan Balazovic to fill Alcantara's void and brought in Kisho Shirakawa, who briefly played for SSG Landers, as a substitute for Brandon. However, they also clearly fell short of Doosan's expectations.
Balazovic made a strong impression on his debut, throwing a fastball in the mid-150km range, but he only made a humble performance of 2-6-1 with a 4.26 ERA in 12 appearances. In particular, he suffered the humiliation of changing his position to a bullpen instead of a starter at the end of the season when one win was important.
The same was true of Shirakawa. After going 2-2 with a 5.09 ERA in five appearances at SSG, Shirakawa will remain in the KBO League as a "short-term outsider." However, he was even sluggish in seven games with two wins and three losses with a 6.03 ERA. Notably, when Brandon showed no signs of returning, Doosan signed an extension contract with Shirakawa. However, as Shirakawa injured his elbow this time, he left Korea without meeting the entire contract period.
Kwak Bin alone won 15 games this year, winning the title of the most wins among four foreign pitchers who passed the Doosan Bears. This part shows how much foreign pitchers have been struggling with this year. As a result, Doosan began setting up foreign pitchers as soon as the season ended, and took great resources in its arms.
The first player Doosan recruited was Cole Irvin. Irvin started his professional career in 2017 with the 137th overall pick in the fifth round of the Major League Rookie Draft by the Philadelphia Phillies, and recorded 28 wins, 40 losses and an ERA of 4.54 in six major league seasons, including playing for the Oakland Athletics and Baltimore Orioles. In particular, he spent 10 wins in the 2021 season completing the regular innings, and is an "active big leaguer" who won nine games in the 2022 season by eating 181 innings.
Having been troubled by foreign pitchers this year, Doosan moved very aggressively and aggressively right after the start of the stove league, and succeeded in capturing Irvin's heart amid competition between the KBO league and Japanese teams. Irvin also received a $2 million (W2.8 billion) salary in the Major League this year, when he decided to develop his dream of "reverse export" with Doosan. And Doosan even recruited a second foreign pitcher. Thomas Hatch, who has experience in the Major League and Japanese professional baseball.
Hatch, who started his professional career after being drafted by the Chicago Cubs as the 104th overall pick in the third round of the Major League Rookie Draft in 2016, had 4 wins, 4 losses and a 4.96 ERA in four major league seasons, playing for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp in the Japanese professional baseball league last year. Although his performance in the Major League and the Japanese first team is disappointing, he believes it will work well in Korea. This is because he was not bad with 33 wins and 45 losses and a 4.18 ERA in the minor league and 5 wins and 4 losses and 2.36 ERA in the Japanese second team. 메이저사이트
Doosan, which had a very tough season this year due to foreign pitchers, has high expectations for Irvin and Hatch. You can see just by looking at the fact that Doosan has signed a "full guarantee" contract, which does not include an option. In order for Doosan to advance to a higher level than last year and this year, it must secure at least 25 wins.