The team wanted a right-handed slugger because of their left-handed batting lineup, and they needed a solid pinch-hitting option, so they turned to Park Byung-ho.
In a one-for-one trade, Oh Jae-il, who came in as a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the ninth inning and hit a home run, and Park Byung-ho, who had been embroiled in a controversy over his demand for release, switched uniforms.
Immediately after their home game on the 28th, the Samsung Lions announced that they had traded left-handed hitter Oh Jae-il for right-handed hitter Park Byung-ho from the KT Wiz for infield resources.
The team had a strong need for right-handed hitters, and Samsung added the expectation that Park’s superior home run production would be maximized at Daegu Samsung Lions Park, which has a short fence distance, along with the left-right balance of the team’s batting order.
Oh, who began his professional career with Hyundai in 2005, became one of Doosan’s key hitters and one of the league’s best left-handed long-distance hitters before signing with Samsung shortly after the 2020 season for a four-year, maximum total of 5 billion won.
After hitting 25 home runs and a .285 batting average in 2021, the first year of his contract, which was his best year for Samsung, both his batting average and home runs began to decline.
Last year, after an injury-plagued season, he barely hit above the double-digit mark (.203) and only hit double-digit home runs (11), leaving Samsung with a worrisome situation.
After starting the year determined to redeem himself, Oh eventually bounced around the second team, hitting just three home runs and seven RBIs, before eventually making the move to KT Wiz.
The newest addition to the Samsung roster, Park Byung-ho was one of the league’s leading home run hitters, hitting 20 or more home runs every year from 2012 to 2022, topping 50 in 2014 and 2015, and again proving to be a threat in 2022 with 35 home runs.
After a slow start last year with 18 home runs and 87 RBIs, Park lost the battle for the starting job this season with a slump of three home runs 카지노사이트 and 10 RBIs, and he was reportedly removed from the first-team roster on April 26, prompting him to make the move.
With 383 career home runs, good enough for third place on the all-time list, expectations are high for Park, who is a rare right-handed hitter for Samsung.
Kim Young-woong and Koo Ja-rook, who rank first and second on the team in home runs through 28 games, are both left-handed hitters.
With Kim Young-woong, the team’s only double-digit home run hitter, with 12, and captain Koo Ja-rook, with nine, Samsung doesn’t have a clear-cut right-handed long ball hitter aside from Lee Sung-kyu, who has seven home runs.
Samsung’s foreign-born hitter McKinnon, a first baseman who plays the same defensive position as Oh Jae-il and Park Byung-ho, is tied for fourth on the team with four home runs, but he’s definitely lacking in long ball power compared to his batting average.
Given that catcher Kang Min-ho is often utilized as a right-handed batting resource, but is often not as effective as he could be, such as in the field, Samsung’s signing of Park Byung-ho could fulfill a long-standing need for the team.
Park Byung-ho will reportedly join the first-team squad on the 29th, a day after the trade was announced.