Winter is over: It's time to play ball!

Baseball

Published: 30 Mar. 2023, 16:36 Updated: 30 Mar. 2023, 17:33

Winter is over: It's time to play ball!

The SSG Landers celebrate after winning the 2022 Korean Series at Incheon SSG Landers Field in Incheon on Nov. 8, 2022. [YONHAP]

The KBO returns for its 41st season on Saturday as the 10 clubs begin their 144-game marathon to the playoffs in October. Here's how the team's line up at the start of the new season.

SSG Landers

The reigning champion SSG Landers return this season largely unchanged from the squad that won the KBO’s first wire-to-wire pennant title and then cruised to a Korean Series win last year.

Despite their success last year, the Landers did opt to drop all three of their foreign players, bringing in pitchers Kirk McCarty and Enny Romero and hitter Guillermo Heredia.

Former major leaguer and Landers ace Kim Kwang-hyun returns to lead the ballpen, as do big hitters Choi Jung, Han Yoo-seom and Choo Shin-soo.

A lot of the Landers’ recent success can be credited to the long-term growth of the club and investment made by owners SSG. Both of those factors will still be at play this year, so, while the heart of the squad may be getting on a bit, the Landers shouldn’t be underestimated.

Kiwoom Heroes

The Kiwoom Heroes rose rapidly last season to take second place, but remain an unpredictable entity in the league this year.

In the plus column, the Heroes remain the home of the grandson of the wind himself, Lee Jung-hoo.

Lee, the reigning KBO MVP and winner of practically every other accolade going last season, could prove to be a gamechanger on his own next season, although it will likely be the last the club gets out of him as he is expected to be posted to the majors at the end of the year.

But while Lee returns, the Heroes lost big hitter Yasiel Puig in the offseason after the Cuban slugger plead guilty to lying to federal law enforcement officers. In a surprise move, they replaced him with Addison Russell, another controversial player who hit .254 when he played for the team in 2020.

LG Twins

The LG Twins have had a difficult few decades.

Despite being one of the league’s founding teams, they haven’t won a title since 1994. Things are starting to look up, however, with the Seoul club becoming playoff regulars for the last 10 years.

But despite being a regular fixture in fall baseball, the Twins just have not been able to get it right. They finished third last year and fourth in the previous three seasons. Despite that, Seoul’s original baseball team just haven’t been able to make things click well enough to reach the top.

The Twins welcome back ace pitcher Casey Kelly alongside KBO rookies Adam Plutko and Austin Dean. Long-term star Kim Hyun-soo also returns, as does shortstop Oh Ji-hwan on a huge contract extension that will keep him in Jamsil for the next six years.

KT Wiz

The KT Wiz won the 2021 KBO season and then dropped to fourth-place in 2022.

The Wiz had an up-and-down season last year, with gaffe-prone star slugger Kang Baek-ho missing the first month after breaking his toe. Kang, never far from the news, remains as divisive a figure as ever this year, arriving in the 2023 season after shouldering a not insignificant part of the blame for Korea’s early exit from the World Baseball Classic when he stepped off the second base bag while celebrating.

The Wiz revamped their entire foreign player lineup mid-season last year, but have now kept both pitcher Wes Benjamin and hitter Anthony Alford for some much-needed continuity. Beau Sulser completes the lineup.

The Wiz finished spring training tied with the Landers in fourth, suggesting there are no major concerns in Suwon.

Kia Tigers

The Kia Tigers arrive at the start of the 2023 season in crisis mode. Just three days before they face the Landers to kick off the year, the club fired general manager Jang Jung-suk after he was accused of requesting a bribe during contract negotiations with a former player last year.

That instability in the front office is likely to overshadow the season for the Tigers, who have remained a middle-of-the-table team for the last few years despite some fairly hefty off-season expenditures.

The Tigers brought back franchise star Yang Hyeon-jong last season alongside former NC Dinos slugger and one-time major league prospect Na Sung-bum, but only reached fifth place. They then lost catcher Park Dong-won — the player behind the bribery accusations — at the end of last year and failed to recuit any of the other catchers on the market.

NC Dinos

The 2020 Korean Series title was a historic moment for the NC Dinos, but it also kicked off a surprising slide that saw a club that had missed out on the postseason only once since its inception suddenly drop into the bottom half of the table.

The Dinos finished 2021 in ninth place and 2022 in seventh, but then released all three foreign players and were plundered in the free agent market.

Of the seven NC players to earn free agency, only three remain with the club this season. Gone are former captain Yang Eui-ji, speedy Park Min-woo and franchise star Noh Jin-hyuk, with former Doosan Bears catcher Park Sei-hyok the only new addision.

With so many changes in Changwon it’s difficult to predict how the team will fare this season.

Samsung Lions

The Samsung Lions went from unbeatable in the early 2010s to basement-dwellers at the end of the decade and now seem to have settled into an uncomfortable middle-of-the-table spot.

After making the playoffs for the first time in five years in 2021, the Lions finished last season in seventh and appear to be struggling to break back into the top five.

The Lions are one of only two teams to keep their entire foreign lineup, with Jose Pirela, last season’s RBI, home run and batting average runner-up, agreeing to return.

The Daegu squad also made no moves in the free agent market, allowing two players to slip away without a replacement, leaving the Lions fielding almost the exact same team as last year. That team is also largely unchanged since 2021, when they made it to the top of the table only to lose a tie-breaker with the Wiz and slip to third during the playoffs.

Lotte Giants

The Lotte Giants arrived last year with a revamped squad focused on speed and a rejigged stadium designed to make home runs harder to hit. The idea was that the Giants were going to play small-ball baseball and force everyone else to do it with them.

The approach has not paid off yet, but the Lotte club seem willing to keep trying. They brought back their entire foreign player lineup from last season, including fan favorite Dan Straily for a fourth year.

The Giants did not lose a single player to free agency, but signed three new players of their own: Catcher Yoo Kang-nam, infielder Noh Jin-hyuk and pitcher Han Hyun-hee.

With the whole country in an expo frenzy, all the focus is on Busan this year. Whether that energy will transfer to Sajik Baseball Stadium remains to be seen.

Doosan Bears

The once-mighty Doosan Bears appear to have hit a rebuild period, and hit it hard.

After defying the odds to finish second in 2021, the Bears’ luck ran out last year and the team crashed to ninth on the table for their worst finish since 2003 when the KBO only had eight teams.

The front office responded by firing manager Kim Tae-hyoung, who led the Bears to seven Korean Series appearances, three pennants and three championship titles, and replacing him with Lee Seung-yuop, one of the most decorated players in KBO history but an entirely untested manager.

The experiments continue as the club agreed the highest contract in KBO history to bring back catcher Yang Eui-ji, who, whilst still one of the best catchers in the league, is now nearing his 36 birthday.

Hanwha Eagles

The Eagles have made it to the playoffs once since 2007 and finished last for the last three seasons, but this year it looks like the club may be starting to shake off that complacency.

The Eagles were highly active in the free agent market, signing five players and not losing any. They replaced two of their free foreign players, re-signing Felix Pena and adding veteran right-hander Burch Smith and hitter Brian O’Grady from Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league.

The Eagles also broke ground on their new stadium earlier this month. While it won’t be ready until 2025, the fact that the club is on the verge of finally moving out of their 60-year-old digs could finally light a fire under the struggling Daejeon side.

There is a temptation in the KBO to assume that none of this will have any impact on the KBO’s perennial bottom feeders, but when it comes to the Eagles it’s always best to be optimistic.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]