On the 21st, an FA contract was signed with Lim Ki-young, an all-weather submarine, for a total of 1.5 billion won for three years
KIA, which recruited Cho Sang-woo two days ago, even caught Lim Ki-young, an all-weather submarine.
The Kia Tigers announced in a press release on Monday that it signed a three-year contract worth 1.5 billion won (down payment of 300 million won + salary of 900 million won + option 300 million won) with submarine pitcher Lim Ki-young, who has become a free agent. “I didn’t think about moving to another team. I’m grateful to the team for making such favorable conditions, and I’m glad to hear fans’ cheers again. I will prepare well and become a player who can help us win the Korean Series for two consecutive years,” Lim said.
Lim, who joined the Hanwha Eagles in 2012, moved to KIA in November 2014 as compensation for Song Eun-beom (Samsung Lions) of the FA, and played in 285 games with 51 wins, 59 losses, 4 saves, 21 holds, and an ERA of 4.80. Although Lim was sluggish in 37 games this year with 6 wins, 2 losses and 2 holds and 6.31 holds, which delayed the FA negotiations and contracts, Lim is a resource that can be used as both a starter and a bullpen in the KIA mound.
Submarine Bullets Not Meeting Expectations This Season
Even without mentioning legendary submarines such as Cho Woong-cheon (Doosan Bears’ second-tier pitching coach), Lim Chang-yong and Chung Dae-hyun (Samsung’s chief pitching coach), each team has at least one submarine bullpen pitcher who is active in the first division. Submarine pitchers are weak against left-handed hitters, but they are easy to mislead batters with unique pitching form and tricky pitches. However, there were not many submarine bullpen pitchers who made impressive performances this season.
Han Hyun-hee (Lotte Giants), who won hold titles in the league for two consecutive years in 2013 and 2014 when he was playing for the Nexen Heroes (now Kiwoom), has been a swing man who transcends starting pitchers and bullpen sessions this year. Still, it is not a big deal to say that he mainly played as a bullpen pitcher since 52 of his 57 appearances in this season were in the bullpen session. However, Han Hyun-hee remained far from the days when he reigned as the best setup man in the league with five wins, three losses and eight holds of 5.19.
Jung Woo-young of the LG Twins is a submarine pitcher specializing in bullpen sessions, as he pitched in all 345 games since his debut as a pro. With powerful two-seam fastballs exceeding 155 kilometers per hour, Jung continued his stellar career by being selected as the Rookie of the Year in 2019 and the Hold King in 2022. However, Jung failed to rebound with 2-1 with 3 holds 4.76 as he suffered major and minor injuries this year, following last year’s slump with 5 wins, 6 losses and 11 holds.
Kim Dae-yu, who moved to LG through the second draft in 2020 after playing for the SK Wyverns and kt Wiz, took advantage of the “left-hand side arm” and recorded 4 wins, 1 loss, 24 holds, 2.13 holds, and 2 wins, 1 loss, 13 holds, 2.04 holds, in 2022, showing his active performance. Accordingly, KIA appointed Kim Dae-yu as a compensation player for Park Dong-won, who moved to FA in November 2022, but Kim Dae-yu has not been able to show the power of his LG days with a disappointing performance of 8.28 with 8 holds this year, following 2 losses and 4 holds last year.
Park, who joined Doosan in 2017, received military service benefits early on, winning the gold medal at the Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games with a record of 1-5-3 with 17 holds and 3.63 in 67 games in 2018, his second season. However, Park has since become a representative bullpen side-arm pitcher with ups and downs. Park has recorded the highest ERA since his debut this season with a record of 2 wins, 3 losses and 3 holds of 6.38 in 52 games.
Expect to play a link between the starting team and the winning team 안전놀이터
In the FA market this year, promising players who are scheduled to join the military such as Han Seung-joo (kt), Kim Young-hyun (Doosan), and Kang Hyo-jong (KIA) were often nominated as compensation players. Rather than selecting players whose performance or growth is uncertain, players who can grow by gaining hands-on experience in the Futures League were designated as compensation players. Several teams made such a choice this year due in large part to the successful cases of KIA, which nominated Lim Ki-young.
Kia named Lim Ki-young, who was scheduled to join the team as compensation for Song in November 2014. Many people said it was a disappointing choice until then, but Lim played as the fourth starting pitcher of Kia in 2017 after finishing his military service, contributing significantly to Kia’s victory in the Korean Series with eight wins, six losses and 3.65 losses including two shutout wins. However, Lim said 2017 was his best season as a starting pitcher, and he tied for first place with the most losses in the league with four wins and 13 losses in 2022.
Lim pitched in 64 games last year, posting four wins, four losses and three saves with 16 holds and 2.96, displaying good potential as a bullpen pitcher. However, he was excluded from the entry for the Korean Series due to his sluggish performance with six wins, two losses and two holds and 6.31, just ahead of the FA season. Lim applied for the FA after the end of the season, but Jang Hyun-sik (LG) won a four-year total of 5.2 billion won (approx. Lim managed to sign a three-year total of 1.5 billion won (1.5 million U.S. dollars) contract with KIA before the end of the year.
KIA will be able to build a stronger mound by keeping its all-weather submarine Lim Ki-young, who can move between the starting pitcher and the bullpen. Kia, which is lined with left-handed bullpen pitchers including Kwak Do-gyu, Choi Ji-min, Kim Dae-yu, and Kim Ki-hoon, will have a right-handed bullpen session that will lead to Jeong Hae-young and Jo Sang-woo, who newly joined Jeon Sang-hyun, as well as a sidearm Lim Ki-young. Since Lim has 125 career starts, he can start as many times as he wants in case of emergencies.
From Lim’s point of view, he will aim to recover the ball power of the 2023 season, which was in full swing during the next season, and rejoin the must-win group. However, even if Kia does not have a strong bullpen session to a must-win group, just providing a role that connects the starting pitcher and the must-win group can be of great help to Kia. What is clear is that the news of Lim’s contract as an FA, which has been wearing Kia’s uniform for the past 10 years, has become a small but precious gift to Kia fans ahead of Christmas.
