Infielder Choi Ju-hwan (35) has moved to the Kiwoom Heroes with the first overall pick in the second round of the KBO Draft. Choi was selected by Kiwoom with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 KBO Secondary Draft held behind closed doors on Wednesday. Choi, who played for the Doosan Bears since 2006, became a free agent at the end of the 2020 season and signed a four-year, $4.2 billion contract with the SK Wyverns (formerly the SSG Landers).Choi played in 134 games this year, batting .235 (100-for-426) with 20 home runs and 63 RBIs in 426 at-bats. His career first-team numbers are .297 with 115 home runs and 594 RBIs in 1,268 games .Being selected in the second round of the draft means that he was not on SSG’s 35-man protected list.
“Choi Joo-hwan is a versatile player. I think he will fill the gaps in our team. We are lucky to have the No. 1 overall pick this year.” SSG also sent veteran outfielder Kim Kang-min, born in 1982, to the Hanwha Eagles in the fourth round (22nd overall), infielder Choi Hang to Lotte in the third round (15th overall), and pitcher Cho Sung-hoon to Kiwoom in the fourth round (21st overall).However, Kim Kang-min’s future is unclear. He was offered a coaching job with his former club SSG and was considering whether to extend his career .Hanwha president Son Hyuk said, “When I was the pitching coach of SK, I was deeply impressed by Kim Kang-min’s skills and leadership. I thought his current form would help our outfield in the 2024 season. I will try to convince him to join our team as a player,” said Kim .Hanwha selected LG Twins pitcher Lee Sang-kyu with the second overall pick in the first round, and the Samsung Lions selected LG pitcher Choi Sung-hoon with the third overall pick. SSG selected only two catchers, Park Dae-on (NC Dinos) in the first round and Shin Beom-soo (KIA Tigers) in the third. They gave up their second round pick.
“Catcher was the position that needed the most reinforcement. We looked at the second round roster and saw that we had good catcher resources.” “We will soon start negotiations with catcher Kim Min-sik, who is eligible for free agency. We also plan to interview existing catchers Lee Jae-won and Lee Heung-ryun.”The Doosan Bears also selected LG catcher Kim Ki-yeon in the first round.
KT WIZ selected Samsung veteran pitcher Woo Kyu-min with the sixth pick of the first round. The Lotte Giants, KIA, NC, and LG gave up their first-round picks .Kiwoom pitcher Yang Hyun went to Samsung with the eighth pick in the second round, and Hanwha infielder Oh Sun-jin went to Lotte with the ninth pick in the second round .In terms of players drafted, LG, SSG, and NC tied for the most with four, followed by KIA (three), Doosan and Kiwoom (two each), and Samsung, Hanwha, and KT (one each). No one was selected from Lotte .In this draft, 10 clubs selected players in the third round in reverse order of their performance this season. The bottom three teams were 카지노사이트 allowed to select up to two more players to bring their total up to five.