Oh Won-seok, 23, of the SSG Landers, said, “We have given enough chances. Now we need to show a different side of ourselves.
SSG removed Oh Won-seok from its entry list ahead of the 2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League Kiwoom Heroes at SSG Landers Field in Incheon on Wednesday. Outfielder Jihoon Choi was called up instead.
The reason for his cancellation was his shoulder injury. Oh couldn’t afford to play after taking the mound as relief pitcher for one inning without allowing a single goal against the Samsung Lions on Sunday. According to an SSG official, no abnormalities were found in the MRI examination result, but he was excluded from the entry for the first team due to shoulder injury.
Players who have been informed to play for the Futures League will have to wait at least 10 days before they can join the team. However, the KBO League set September 28 as its target period for the end of the regular season. Oh Won-seok will end this season as it is if the sixth-ranked SSG fails to advance to the autumn baseball league. 메이저사이트
Oh has posted six wins, nine losses, one hold, 112 strikeouts, and an earned run average of 5.03 (68 earned runs in 121 ⅔ innings) this season. On the surface, his performance was not that bad. However, the situation is different when comparing his performances in the first half and the second half.
In the first half, Oh performed well in 18 games, with five wins, five losses and one hold, 83 strikeouts, and an ERA of 4.15 (40 earned runs in 86 ⅔ innings). He played his part alone in SSG, which had seen its starting lineup collapse at the time. He displayed good performance as he could expect career-high performance including his first 10 wins since his debut.
However, his performance in the second half was close to a nightmare. Oh significantly collapsed in 11 games with one win, four losses and 29 strikeouts with an earned run average of 7.20 (28 earned runs in 35 innings). His earned run average (ERA) was seriously shaken to the extent that he was the lowest among 68 pitchers who pitched in 25 innings in the second half. Nevertheless, he constantly received opportunities, but failed to rebound in the end, ending the season in loneliness.
Oh Won-seok, who joined the SK Wyverns (currently SSG) as the first designated player in the 2020 KBO League Rookie Draft, has been receiving a lot of expectations since his rookie days, receiving the modifier “second Kim Kwang-hyun.” There was a common denominator in that he was an SSG native and his main weapon was a left-hander with a slider.
Oh Won-seok, who played in eight games as a rookie, showed growth as he played his first full-time season in 2021, his second year. Since then, he has become a next-generation ace by completing the regular innings for the first time when he won “Wire to Wire” in 2022.
Oh, who has been on a roll, has seen his skills stagnate with his earned run average soaring to the five-point level last year, raising concerns. Still, he had the most wins (eight wins) in a single season as an individual player and filled the regular innings for the second consecutive year, which left some room to look forward to. However, he showed signs of regression in the second half of this year and remained under the label of a promising player until the end of his fifth year.
What needs to be improved in order for Oh to become a starter is clear. This refers to his capacity to digest innings. Oh, who had 11 quality starts in 2022, slowed down to seven last year and ended up with only two in the first half this year. He has failed to achieve a quality start in 13 consecutive games since June, putting pressure on the bullpen. If he is to return to the starting lineup next season, he needs to show a much better performance than this year.
