Will the Lotte Giants possess Park Chan-ho (29), who will become an FA after the end of the 2025 season?
Lotte has been agonizing over shortstop issues in the 2024 season. After signing a four-year contract worth 5 billion won (approx. After the end of the 2022 season, Noh suffered the worst slump ever with a batting average of 0.217 with two homers, 13 RBIs and an OPS of 0.604 in 73 games. Park, who replaced Noh as shortstop, observed the batting average of 0.262 with seven homers, 53 RBIs and an OPS of 0.716, in 139 games, but showed signs of anxiety to the extent that he failed to take the lead in defense.
If the shortstop problem is repeated again in the next season, Lotte can turn its attention to external FA. The top shortstop in the KBO League can qualify for next year’s FA market. It is Park Chan-ho, who led the KIA Tigers to its 12th career championship.
In the 2014 rookie draft, Park joined Kia by ranking 50th overall in the second round and fifth round. In the early days, he had outstanding defense capability, but lacked offensives. From the 2019 season to the 2021 season, when he became a starting infielder, he never hit .300 batting average (0.260-0.223-0.246).
Although his offense did not recover for a while, he rebounded from the 2022 season 메이저놀이터. Park Chan-ho improved to the next level with a batting average of 0.272, four homers, 45 RBIs and an OPS of 0.685 in 130 games. In the 2023 season, he hit his first career batting average of .301 with three homers, 52 RBIs and an OPS of 0.734. In recognition of his performance last year, he ranked second in the Golden Glove and was named the shortstop of the KBO’s defense award along with Oh Ji-hwan.
In the 2024 season, Park achieved a career high. He became a shortstop with a batting average of 0.307 with five homers and 61 RBIs in 134 games and an OPS of 0.749. He also played in all games and recorded a batting average of 0.318 (seven hits in 22 times at bat) in the Korean Series, contributing to Kia’s victory. Park is considered the likely winner of the Golden Glove in the shortstop category.
If Park Chan-ho achieves the same performance as in the 2024 season in the 2025 season, his ransom could rise further. Shim Woo-joon, who is the same age as Park Chan-ho in the FA market, signed a four-year contract with the Hanwha Eagles for up to 5 billion won. Shim Woo-joon is excellent in defense, but his offense is so weak that he has never exceeded the OPS of 0.7 except in 2017. Park Chan-ho, who is superior in offense than Shim Woo-joon, is likely to increase in value.
In this stove league, Lotte signed a four-year contract worth 5.4 billion won with Kim Won-joong and up to 2.1 billion won with Koo for two plus two years, focusing on cracking down on internal issues. Lotte, which is saving bullets, has a chance to seek to beef up its capability through external FA. It remains to be seen what judgment Lotte, which needs a new shortstop, will make on Park Chan-ho in 2025.
