Following Choo Shin-soo (SSG Landers), Kim Kang-min, who was born in 1982, decided to say goodbye to the ground in the end.
Hanwha Eagles said on the 2nd, “We have decided not to renew the contract with a total of seven players, including three players who have expressed their intention to retire.”
Kim Kang-min’s name was included in the list of the three players who announced their intention to retire. Kim decided to end his 24-year professional career after just one season of transfer to Hanwha.
Kim Kang-min was a “one-club man” who played only at SSG for 23 years from 2001 to last year when he entered the professional league.
When the SK Wyverns, the predecessor of SSG, built the dynasty, he was the main center fielder. He also had five Korean Series championship rings (2007, 2008, 2010, 2018, 2022).
In the 2022 Korean Series, he won the MVP award by shooting a dramatic walk-off home run in Game 5.
It was in November last year that Kim Kang-min’s future changed.
Kim Kang-min, who played only 70 games due to reduced opportunities in the 2023 season, was considering retirement little by little, and SSG was also asking about his intention.
At the second draft held on Nov. 22 last year, SSG did not include Kim Kang-min, who was seeking to retire, in its list of 35 players to be protected. Given that he is unlikely to be nominated, the organization did not even announce his retirement plans or discussions.
Amid this development, Hanwha has named Kim Kang-min. The Hanwha Eagles, who hoped to reinforce the outfield and encourage young outfielders to grow, highly appreciated Kim’s experience and named him as the 22nd overall pick in the fourth round.
With the persuasion of the Hanwha team, Kim Kang-min chose to extend his active career.
The sudden transfer of the franchise star, who played for the same team for 23 years, infested the public opinion of SSG fans. For this reason, former general manager Kim Sung-yong even resigned to take responsibility.
Kim Kang-min also changed his jersey number from 0 to 9 and started anew.
However, his performance fell short of expectations. Kim only played in 41 games this season, posting a batting average of 0.224 with one homer and seven RBIs with an OPS of 0.585.
Kim Kang-min, who was out of the first-team entry due to hamstring (muscle behind his thigh) pain a week after the opening, returned after 10 days, but failed to raise his batting sense and went down to the second-tier team at the end of April.
After returning to action on May 10, Kim seemed to show off his robustness with a batting average of 0.433 (13 hits in 30 at-bats) and one homerun and six RBIs in 15 games during May, but he had the bad luck of being hit in the head by an opposing pitcher’s ball against the Daegu Samsung Lions on June 2. Kim was out of the lineup again on June 3.
He joined the first team 10 days later, but failed to recover his hitting sense. Kim Kang-min, who played in the second team again in late June due to recurrence of hamstring pain, returned to the team on July 7, but was absent from the first team again on July 18 after going 0 for 13. He has not been able to play in the first team since then.
After a difficult year due to minor injuries and sluggishness, Kim Kang-min finally decided to retire after the season. 안전놀이터
While Choo Shin-soo, who enjoyed the joy of winning the SSG together in 2022, has already announced his retirement before the 2024 season, Kim Kang-min, who is the same age, will also leave the ground.
Attention is also focusing on whether and how Kim Kang-min, who played 23 years at SSG and 1 year at Hanwha, will hold retirement ceremonies.
It is unlikely that Kim Kang-min, who has played as a league-leading outfielder and has been a professional for 24 years, will finish his career without a retirement ceremony.
Although he retired as a member of Hanwha, he has a strong image of being an SSG one clubman, so discussions between the two teams may be needed to hold the retirement ceremony.
The regular season has just ended and retirement has been decided at the end of the season, so no specific talk has been made about the retirement ceremony.
Although he became a player on another team, SSG fans’ affection for Kim Kang-min still remains. On March 26, when Kim visited Incheon for the first time since moving to Hanwha, SSG fans sang “Cheering Song” together.
Dustin Nippert’s retirement ceremony in the game between the Doosan Bears and KT Wiz on the 14th of last month may be a reference.
Nippert, who played for KT in 2018 after playing as Doosan’s ace between 2011 and 2017, retired, made his retirement ceremony as a special entry for retired players.
