The Doosan Bears reinforced their home defense by selecting LG catcher Kim Ki-yeon as the fourth pick in the first round of the 2023 KBO second draft held on the 22nd of last month.
“We focused on harvesting backup catchers in the second draft,” the Doosan Bears said on the reason for Kim’s selection. Kim Ki-yeon is a young catcher who has completed his mandatory military service, and he has high potential for the future. He has strong shoulders and stable management skills. As he possesses good talent, he is a player who will greatly contribute to the team if experience is added. “I hope that Yang Eui-ji, the best catcher in Korea and a senior at Gwangju High School, will greatly help him grow.”
Kim Ki-yeon, a native of Jinheung High School, is an unfinished catcher who wore the LG uniform as the 34th player in the second round of the fourth round of the 2016 Rookie Draft. Although he has spent eight years since joining the team, his career record is all about 42 games with a batting average of 14.3 RBIs, and he was sluggish with a batting average of 118, and two RBIs in 28 games this year when his team won the championship for the first time in 29 years. He was also pushed around by the 39-year-old veteran catcher Huh Do-hwan and lived in Icheon. 스포츠토토
Kim Ki-yeon, born in 1997, is exactly 10 years older than Yang Eui-ji, born in 1987. Nevertheless, the two players shared the same Jamsil Stadium and continued their relationship as seniors and juniors at Jinheung High School. “Kim Ki-yeon greeted me as a senior at school since I was young. Then I would give her a bat for her once in a while,” Yang Eui-ji recalled.
However, he did not readily agree with Yang Eui-ji, a senior at Gwangju High School, that he expects Yang Eui-ji to contribute greatly to the growth. This is because there is no school relationship between Yang Eui-ji and Yang Eui-ji in advance. Instead, he plans to help other catchers until his junior gets used to the atmosphere of Doosan Bears.
Yang Eui-ji emphasized, “Our country still has a little bit of school ties and delays, but we still have to take our seats individually,” and added, “Before that, all other catchers, including Jang Seung-hyun and Ahn Seung-han, will help Kim Ki-yeon well. Also, I will step up a little bit and help him.”
Doosan is a “catcher kingdom” with six backup catchers, including Jang Seung-hyun, Ahn Seung-han, Yoon Joon-ho, and Park Min-joon who played in the closing camp in Icheon, and Park Yeon-yu and Jang Gyu-bin who are currently undergoing rehabilitation. Then, why did Doosan select a catcher again in the second draft.
“There were no outstanding catchers except for Yang Eui-ji this year. The most important thing I paid attention to is his veteran will, and he effectively took the designated full-time hitter position at the NC Dinosaurs last year and thought that he shouldn’t overdo it,” Doosan manager Lee Seung-yeop said. “However, due to team circumstances, I had no choice but to participate in many games. If the second catcher became capable of playing two games a week, his will would have arranged his physical strength by taking the designated hitter position. Of course, Jang Seung-hyun and Ahn Seung-han did a good job, but they fell short of my expectations.”
As the head coach said, Doosans backup homeowners who had sweated since last years closing camp failed to perform their roles properly. Notably, Jang Seung-hyeon, who was selected as the second catcher, was suffering from sluggish performance with a batting average of 15.8 with three homers and nine RBIs in 76 games while playing 390 ⅓ at his home ground. His batting average with a scoring capacity was only 111. As a result, if Yang Eui-ji falls into injury or physical fitness variables, it was inevitable for him to weaken his capacity as a catcher. Following Jang, Ahn Seung-han pitched 80 innings and Park Yoo-yeon pitched 41 ⅓ innings.
Yang Eui-ji, who will mark the second year of his FA contract in 2024, is 37 years old. Although he is expected to maintain top-notch batting and defense skills next year, he has difficulties practically and physically to handle 144 games alone as he has done this year. Nor should he run the team like that. Doosan set the focus of its second draft pick as catcher from the beginning, and boldly chose a prospective catcher in the first round, which will require transfer of 400 million won (34,000 U.S. dollars).
Yang Eui-ji said, “It was the club’s decision to recruit another catcher. Honestly, it’s good if there are many catchers,” adding, “Since I am not a catcher who will play for more than 10 years, I have to raise the main catcher. I also have a duty to nurture the main catcher. I also think I need to prepare well and help a lot.”
Coach Lee recently included Kim Ki-yeon in his home turf plan for next year, saying, “We will take Kim Ki-yeon to the spring camp for the Korean pro team.” Attention is focusing on whether Kim Ki-yeon will be able to take the backup post of Yang Eui-ji, a high school senior and national team catcher. It is up to Kim Ki-yeon.