How far can an outfielder without a long bat or half a foot go? He proved it by overcoming the doubts, labels, and prejudices that followed.

The LG Twins have signed everyone on their roster through 2024, except for internal free agent Kim Min-sung.

Hong Chang-ki, who led the team to the championship this season with a stellar performance as a leadoff hitter that earned him an MVP nomination, will earn a salary of 510 million won. That’s a 70 percent increase from last year’s 300 million won. He is the highest paid player on the team, excluding free agents. He was recognized as the ‘No. 1’ hitter during the championship.

He graduated from Konkuk University and entered the professional league late in 2016 at the age of 23. 바카라사이트 In his first four years, including the police baseball team until 2019, Hong had only 38 games and 55 at-bats.

By this time, however, rumors of a “Seon-Guan monster in the LG second team” had spread throughout the baseball world, and the promising star had begun to shine.

In 2020, Hong exploded into stardom.

In 135 games, he batted 2.769 (114-for-408) with a .827 OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage). The following year, he improved his batting average to 32-for-84 and posted a career-high 0.865 OPS. In 2022, he struggled a bit as he moved to right field.

But last year, at age 30, he showed off his star power, ranking fourth in batting average (3-for-3), third in hits (174), first in runs (4-for-4), eighth in OPS (.856), first in walks (88), second in doubles (22), and third in triples (35). In addition to earning his first MVP nomination, he also won the Defensive Player of the Year award for right field and won his second Golden Glove in 2021. While his 23 stolen bases were a bit of a disappointment, it was a year in which he proved himself to be one of the best leadoffs in the league.

Over his four-year career, from 2020 to 2023, he averaged a .827 batting average with a .309 OPS, despite a down year in 2022. He played an average of 134 games, and his combined four-year WAR (wins above replacement, per Statcast) is a whopping 19.23.

In 2020, Hong’s salary was only 38 million won.

However, his salary has since skyrocketed to 100 million won, 320 million won, 300 million won, and 510 million won. Considering that he was in ‘service time’, he was a hitter with a ‘crazy price-performance ratio’ for LG.

In particular, he excelled in this year’s Korean Series, helping his team win the championship for the first time in 29 years since 1994. ‘LG Killer’ KT Benjamin led the team to victory in Game 3 with three hits and one walk. In particular, he singled against Kim Jae-yoon in the top of the ninth inning, paving the way for Oh Ji-hwan’s dramatic comeback. He also had multi-hit games in Games 4 and 5, finishing the series 3-for-5 with an OPS of 0.785.

LG has completed most of its internal overhaul before leaving for spring training at the end of the month. Despite the departure of Ko Woo-seok (San Diego Padres) to the United States and Ham Deok-ju undergoing surgery shortly after signing a free agent contract, 토토사이트 추천 the team remains the No. 1 contender for next season’s title. They re-signed Casey Kelly, the team’s best first baseman in history, Austin Dean, and quickly stamped new pitcher Dietrick Jens. The only thing left to sign is Kim Min-sung.