The Doosan Bears’ short-term foreign player signing has become a hot topic in the final days of the first half. Doosan is expected to wait out the week-long waiver period for Shirakawa, who parted ways with SSG Landers, before making its final choice.
Doosan manager Lee Seung-yeop met with reporters on Wednesday ahead of the team’s seventh game of the 2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League against Lotte at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul and revealed his concerns about choosing a replacement foreign player.
According to a Doosan official, Yokishi, one of the alternate foreign candidates, conducted his second test (live pitching) earlier in the day at Icheon Bears Park, Doosan’s second baseball stadium. He threw a total of 45 pitches, with his fastball reaching a maximum velocity of 143 kilometers.
Yokishi had recently contacted Doosan, saying he was in good physical condition, and Doosan offered him a tryout in exchange for airfare and accommodation.
Doosan is looking for a short-term replacement after foreign pitcher Brandon Waddell suffered a shoulder injury.
When I asked Lee about Yokishi’s second tryout, he said, “I got a report that it wasn’t bad. They said it was similar to last time,” he said, “I think he’s at about 90 percent. Yokishi is not a pitcher who throws more than 150 kilometers, but he is a pitcher who competes with his movement and control. He hasn’t had a team for a year, so I’m worried about his feel for the game. It’s a concern because he only has six weeks,” he said.
Another candidate is Keisho Shirakawa, a former Japanese Independent League ace who was a short-term foreign pitcher for SSG. SSG signed Shirakawa to a six-week short-term contract after existing foreigner Roenis Elias suffered a side injury, 에볼루션 바카라사이트 and he pitched better than expected. SSG officially announced the termination of Shirakawa’s contract on the afternoon of the 2nd, giving Doosan an attractive option.
As Shirakawa was placed on waivers on the 4th, the options are available in the reverse order of the day’s rankings. Doosan, ranked fourth on the three-day standings, will have to wait for 10th-ranked Kiwoom, ninth-ranked Hanwha, eighth-ranked KT, seventh-ranked Lotte, sixth-ranked NC, and fifth-ranked SSG to make their selections, leaving Doosan as the only one of the five clubs with a short-term need for a foreign player.
Still,
Lee said, “We don’t know what will happen to the teams below us as we play today and tomorrow. We have to see what the lower teams choose. We’re going to wait until tomorrow to see what happens,” he said.
“There’s a lot to look at, a lot to think about, a lot of different things going on right now. We have to go into more detail and think about it and discuss it a lot, rather than just picking Yokishi because he has a good pitching arm and has performed well in Korea,” he added.
Doosan, meanwhile, will welcome Lotte starter Park Se-woong with the following starting lineup: Jung Soo-bin (center field), Heo Kyung-min (third base), Henry Ramos (right field), Yang Ji-ji (catcher), Kim Jae-hwan (designated hitter), Yang Seok-hwan (first base), Kang Seung-ho (second base), Park Jun-young (shortstop), and Cho Su-hyung (left field). The starting pitcher is ace Raul Alcantara.
For the first team roster, the team designated pitcher Choi Won-joon for assignment and added pitcher Kim Min-kyu to the roster.
There was also some injury news within the Futures League roster. Hong Seong-ho, Doosan’s next big outfielder, was hit in the right instep by a pitch in the SSG game of the Futures League on March 29 and was diagnosed with incontinence.
Lee said, “I was going to put Hong-seong-ho up anyway, but he said he was incontinent. I was told he needed 10 days to two weeks of rest. The timing is not right,” he sighed.