This season, the club finished in 7th place with 68 wins, 76 losses, and 76 losses. The team
appointed the next manager ahead of the finishing camp. “ We plan to expedite the appointment process
while reviewing candidates including Manager Kim. ” Contracts for FA Jeon Jun-woo and Ahn Chi-hong are also a task.
The professional baseball Lotte Giants finished the 2023 season in 7th place. Lotte failed to advance to the fall baseball season this season and suffered the disgrace of ‘failure to advance to the postseason for six consecutive seasons’ since 2018. Lotte will begin preparations for the 2024 season starting with a finishing camp after a short break. Lotte, which is under acting manager Lee Jong-un, is expected to take the appointment of a new manager as the first step in the 2024 season.
Lotte won 7-2 in the 144th final game of the season against the Hanwha Eagles held in Daejeon on the 16th. As a result, Lotte ended the 2023 season in 7th place, up one step from 8th place last year, with 68 wins and 76 losses (0.472 winning percentage).
Lotte took sole first place early this season, raising hopes of advancing to the fall baseball season and winning the Korean Series.
However, due to injuries to key players and poor performance of foreign players, the ranking plummeted. Lotte failed to pull off a turnaround even after coach Larry Sutton resigned mid-season.
The Lotte team plans to rest for about 7 to 10 days and then begin a team final camp in late this month or early November. The plan is to review the shortcomings of this season during the finishing camp, improve skills, and prepare for the 2024 season.
Lotte has tasks to solve before the start of the finishing camp. It is the task of selecting a manager and coaching staff to lead the new season.
It has been discovered that Lotte has already notified some of the coaches who were active in the first team this season of the termination of their contracts.
It was confirmed that Lotte is considering four to five candidates as the next coach, including former Doosan Bears coach Kim Tae-hyung (56) and former Samsung Lions coach Ryu Joong-il.
Coach Kim served as the head coach of the Doosan Bears from 2015 to 2022 and is a master who led the team to advance to the Korean Series for 7 consecutive seasons, including winning the Korean Series 3 times (2015, 2016, and 2019). Coach Kim’s name has been mentioned as Lotte’s next head coach ever since Coach Lotte Sutton resigned last August.
However, on the 16th, Lotte strongly denied and refuted reports by some media outlets of ‘director Kim Tae-hyung’s appointment.’ He also denied reports that he was coordinating specific contract terms with Director Kim.
Lotte Club emphasized this fact again on the 17th. Lotte Giants CEO Lee Kang-hoon met with reporters from the Busan Ilbo ahead of the 10th Choi Dong-won Award ceremony held on the 17th and said, “We are internally reviewing several good coaches, including coach Kim Tae-hyung, as candidates.” Representative Lee emphasized, “Many fans have supported us, but we feel that the performance and training aspects are a bit lacking, so we think we need to bring in someone who can bring out the team’s capabilities and motivate them.”
Representative Lee officially confirmed, “The candidates selected by the club have not yet been reported to the group (Lotte Holdings).” However, CEO Lee added, “We plan to proceed with the process of appointing a director more quickly.”
Once Lotte’s new coach is appointed, the composition of the first team and futures coaching staff and signing of free agent (FA) players are expected to accelerate. If former coach Kim Tae-hyung takes the helm at Lotte, there are also predictions that current Doosan Bears first-team defensive coach Jo Seong-hwan and current Lotte second-team general coach Bae Young-soo, who worked together during his time as Doosan coach, will assist coach Kim in the first team.토토사이트
In addition, Lotte is expected to review whether to sign free agent contracts with outfielder Jeon Jun-woo (37) and infielder Ahn Chi-hong (33), who will receive free agency qualifications at the end of this season.