Kiwoom Heroes coach Seol Jong-jin apologizes to fans for failing to advance to the postseason

Professional baseball Kiwoom Heroes coach Seol Jong-jin apologized to fans for the club's failure to advance to the postseason for four consecutive seasons.

Coach Seol said ahead of the NC Dinos game to be held at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on the 6th, "I'm sorry to the fans. We prepared hard, but we were unable to produce results. Still, we will do our best to win in all remaining games, and we also asked the players to finish the season without injury."

Kiwoom's mathematical possibility of advancing to the postseason has completely disappeared due to the loss against NC the previous day.

The runner-up finish in the 2022 Korean Series is Kiwoom’s last postseason.

Coach Seol said, "Baseball is a battle of pitchers, and the starting lineup must be equipped to some extent. The most important thing is defense," and added, "Pitchers can pitch well only when the defense helps. So, I plan to strengthen defensive practice during the closing training."

He also revealed specific figures, saying, "For example, if you train 10 hours a day, rather than dividing the proportion of batting and defense 5 to 5, you will focus on defense 7 to 3."

Meanwhile, the Kiwoom team announced that right-arm pitcher Bae Dong-hyun (28), who played an active part in the starting lineup early this season, will end the season due to elbow surgery.

The Kiwoom club predicted, “Bae Dong-hyun is scheduled to undergo surgery to remove a bone fragment from his right elbow on the 9th,” and added, “After three months of recovery time after the surgery, he will begin phased training. There will be no major problems in participating in next year’s camp and joining the season.”

Bae Dong-hyun, who wore the Kiwoom uniform through the second draft last year, left with 4 wins, 8 losses, and an average ERA of 6.28 in 21 games.