Samsung Lions has released Rubens, a foreign hitter who caused controversy over his poor job, and is seeking to recruit a new foreign hitter. The key to recruiting Lewin Diaz, who has been selected as a new hitter, is expected to be a speed battle.
According to a Samsung official, the club is set to sign a contract with left-handed pitcher and left-handed first baseman Lewin Diaz from the Dominican Republic. He is the second replacement foreign hitter who will bring in Cadenas, who has been unable to run due to pain since joining the club as an alternative foreign hitter.
Samsung has agreed to sign a contract with Diaz in a broad framework. However, the team has yet to make an official announcement. This is because the most important issue still remains: to issue a work visa. According to KBO regulations, foreigners must be replaced by August 15 to play in the post season.
Even if Diaz is brought in after the 15th, he will not be able to use it on the fall baseball stage. Although it is speeding up to finish the work quickly, it is difficult for Samsung to make an official position because it has not been completed.
Samsung started the season with David MacKinnon. He had a batting average of 0.294 with four homers, 36 RBIs and 28 runs scored in 72 games. His performance was consistent, but he did not have the long hit he expected. He sent MacKinnon and brought in Ruben Cardenas before the start of the second half of the year.
As soon as Cadenas arrived, he showed good performance. On July 20 and 21, he displayed a cool home run show against the Lotte Giants in Daegu. He hit a 140-meter-long homer on July 20 and a come-from-behind two-run homer off Lotte closer Kim Won-joong on July 21, satisfying Samsung fans’ expectations.
However, the public sentiment toward Cadenas changed dramatically. Cadenas, who complained of back pain in the match against the KT Wiz in Daegu on July 26, has not played normally since then. He received a report that he was okay with the examination, but Cadenas continued to complain about the pain. Samsung, which hoped for improvement, did not drop out of the second division but left it in the first division entry, but ended up wasting only one entry.
Then, something happened on Sunday. In the game against the Hanwha Eagles in Daegu, Kadenas, pinch-hitter in the eighth inning, struck out swinging. That’s understandable. In the top of the ninth inning, however, coach Park Jin-man allowed a double long hit rather than a single hit by his carefree walk defense, and immediately removed Kadenas. The next day, he moved down to the second division. I waited, but didn’t hear from him.
The team has become increasingly dissatisfied. Whether it was Cardenas who was struggling or suffering from chronic injuries, Samsung could not wait any longer.
As a result, if Cardenas leaves as it is, he will end his career by playing in seven KBO league games with a batting average of 0.333 (8 hits in 24 at-bats) with two home runs and five RBIs.
Kadenas is expected to be the batter who plays the fewest games since the introduction of the foreign player system. While pitchers were kicked out early due to injuries and sluggishness, only five foreign hitters were released after playing less than 10 games. However, these were cases where injuries were detected early after being recruited before the season or problems were confirmed through spring camps and exhibition games.
None of the players who were recruited and kicked out during the season played less than 10 games before being released. Previously, it was a disgrace to the least number of games that the Doosan Bears kicked out after 12 games in 2018. For Cardenas, if he leaves the KBO League in disgrace due to controversy over his poor performance and poor performance, chances are slim that he will have a relationship with the Korean baseball again. 메이저놀이터
Attention is also drawn to the new foreign hitter Díaz.
Díaz played for the Miami Marlins in the U.S. Major League Baseball from 2020 to 2022, and this year he played for the Mexican League’s Diablos Rojos del Mexico. His career performance in the Major League was .1851 with 13 home runs, 27 RBIs and 30 runs batted in 112 games. He played in 75 games this season with .376 101 hits, 19 home runs, 77 RBIs and 52 runs.
Samsung continues to compete for the top spot despite the absence of Cardenas, with Korean batters gaining strength. It is 1.5 games behind the second-ranked LG Twins and 5.5 games behind the first-ranked KIA Tigers. The recruitment of Diaz needs to be completed smoothly even for the sake of competition for the top spots at the end of the season and for the postseason.
