Charlie Barnes (29), the left-handed pitcher who has firmly protected the starting lineup of the Lotte Giants, will be able to see him in Busan next year as well. Will the soaring strikeout rate continue in the next season.
Lotte announced on Tuesday that it has renewed its contract with Charlie Barnes, a foreign pitcher. The amount is up 150,000 U.S. dollars year-on-year on the condition of 1.5 million dollars including 1.35 million won in guaranteed amount and 150,000 won in incentives.
Since joining Lotte in 2022, Barnes has pitched in 86 games (507 ⅓ innings) with 32 wins and 28 losses and an ERA of 3.42. He gave up 478 strikeouts and 149 walks, and posted a batting average of 0.254 and an on-base-per-inning allowance (WHIP) of 1.25.
For the past three seasons, few players had shown as consistent performance as Barnes. During the three years from 2022, Barnes ranked third in starting pitching, second in innings, tied for third in multiple wins, and first in strikeouts in the league. In addition, the WAR (contributing to victory over substitute players) of Statiz, a baseball statistics site, also recorded 17.03, surpassing outstanding players such as An Woo-jin (Kium, 15.26) and Kim Kwang-hyun (SSG, 15.00), and Ko Young-pyo (KT, 14.76).
Lotte’s general manager Park Joon-hyuk also said after the renewal of the contract, “Banz has been a team’s main starting pitcher for three seasons, showing consistent and outstanding performance,” adding, “He is a player who has high team loyalty and his attitude toward baseball is a model for his teammates, and I look forward to playing a team-centered role as an ace pitcher next season.”
Amid this performance, the official Major League Baseball (MLB) website MLB.com brought up Barnes’ name in November, referring to “Korean and Japanese players who may advance to the Major League.” Since there have already been rumors of entering the big league since last year, it was in the fog whether to reunite with Lotte, but in the end, they held Lotte’s hand once again.
This laid the groundwork for Barnes to become a “long-lived foreigner.” Four foreign players in Lotte’s history are Felix Jose (1999, 2001, 2006-2007), Roberto Perez (2003-2005, 2007), Brooks Raley (2015-2019), and Dan Staley (2020-2023). Three of them, except for Raley, have been released during the season, so if Barnes plays full time, he can overcome them.
Although he has been consistent over the past three years, he has been particularly outstanding this year. He pitched 150 ⅔ innings in 25 games in the 2024 season, recording 9 wins, 6 losses and an ERA of 3.35. It fell from the previous two seasons in innings and wins, but in detail, there was a side of improvement. 스포츠토토
This year, Barnes struck out 171 pitches. This is the most since his debut in the KBO league. On May 8, he struck out a whopping 13 in seven ⅓ innings against Sajik Hanwha, setting a new record for the most strikeouts in a single game by a foreign pitcher in Lotte. The number of strikeouts per nine innings is 10.22, which is 11th in the KBO league history (subject to the regular innings). During the season, Barnes said, “I thought about how to use the ball after the two strikes, but it’s continuing well because I keep getting good results.”
He also had around 150 strikeouts in 2022 and 2023, but only 7.7 in terms of nine innings. However, he has completely changed this year. As a result, he continued to display good pitching with two earned runs before allowing five runs in each of the last two games.
In particular, Barnes was unable to join the spring camp due to the birth of his children before the season, and he came to Korea alone in late February to build himself. On top of that, he disappeared from the first team for 44 days after suffering an adductor injury against Samsung on May 26. Nevertheless, he filled the regular innings and posted a good record.
On top of that, Barnes will turn 30 next year, and he is now at the age of enjoying his prime as a baseball player. How will Barnes, who is drawing keen attention with his changed appearance, show his performance at Lotte in the 2025 season.
