The key to Lim Ki-young's performance in the '1.5 billion FA' is 'fixing his position'... What role will he play on the 'defending champion' KIA mound
The key to Lim Ki-young's performance in the '1.5 billion FA' is 'fixing his position'... What role will he play on the 'defending champion' KIA mound
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What will be the role of Lim Ki-young (31) of the all-weather sidearm who took the hands of his original team KIA Tigers after a long negotiation.
KIA officially announced on the 21st, "I signed an FA contract with pitcher Lim Ki-young for a three-year total of 1.5 billion won (300 million won in down payment, 900 million won in annual salary, and 300 million won in option).
"Im Ki-young is a dedicated player who does his best in the position that his team needs regardless of starting or bullpen session. I expect that he will greatly contribute to the strength of the mound along with his fellow players in the next season," a Kia official said.
Lim Ki-young is a good fit for the term "all-weather" pitcher. Out of 285 first-team appearances, Lim started in 125 games and pitched in 160 games as a relief pitcher. Excluding 41 relief appearances before moving to the Hanwha Eagles, Lim has played in 119 games as a relief pitcher and moved between the starting pitcher and the bullpen in a similar proportion.
Lim, who was drafted by the Hanwha Eagles as the 18th pick in the second round of the 2012 rookie draft, joined the KIA Tigers in 2014 as Song Eun-beom's FA compensation player. After resolving the military service issue at Sangmu right after his transfer, Lim began to play on the mound in 2017 in earnest.
Lim played the starting rotation in the 2017 season and recorded eight wins, six losses and an ERA of 3.65 in 23 regular-season games. He pitched five scoreless innings in his starting pitching in the Korean Series, contributing greatly to his overall victory.
Lim returned to the starting rotation starting in 2020 after failing to make an impressive performance between the starting pitchers and the bullpen in the 2018 and 2019 seasons. He pitched more than 100 innings every year until 2022. After returning to the bullpen in the 2023 season and taking the mound in 64 games, Lim played 82 innings, recording four wins, four losses, three saves, and 16 holds with an ERA of 2.96. He played 29 multi-inning games that year, making him a must-winner and a key player.
However, he failed to take the mound in the first division for two months due to an abdominal muscle injury early this season. He failed to regain his form even after returning to the mound, and ended the season with a disappointing performance of six wins, two losses and an earned run average of 6.31 in 37 games, 45 ⅔ innings. He also suffered a humiliating loss as he failed to regain his ball power until the end of the season and was not included in the entry for the Korean Series.
The key to Lim's performance next year is to fix his position. He can play multiple roles on the mound, but he showed more stable pitching when his position was fixed for one season. Immediately after returning from injury this year, Lim was not given proper roles as he moved between starting pitchers and bullpen for the entire month, and his ERA soared to 6.75 during the period. 메이저사이트
KIA has firmly established the third starting lineup, which will lead to James Nail, Adam Oler and Yang Hyun-jong next year, but the fourth and fifth starting positions have yet to be determined. Yoon Young-chul, who has returned from injury, Hwang Dong-ha and Kim Do-hyun, who have shown potential, but who will be the starting lineup remains to be seen. The team also recruited Cho Sang-woo, one of the top finishers in the league, but has to fill the vacancy of Jang Hyun-sik, who played 75 ⅓ innings this year. Attention is focusing on what role Lim Ki-young will play on the mound of the defending champion Kia.