The NC Dinos announced on Tuesday that they have terminated the contract of head coach Kang In-hwa.
The NC club said, “In order to renew the atmosphere that has been depressed due to poor performance, we have decided to dismiss Coach Kang with the elimination from the top five confirmed. C-team coach Gong Pil-sung will serve as acting head coach for the remainder of the season,” the organization said.
NC’s elimination from the postseason was confirmed the day before with a 6-7 loss to Hanwha. NC is in ninth place with 60 wins, two draws and 74 losses.
NC was in second place until mid-May. Foreign players Hart, Castano, and Davidson performed above average. The Korean starting lineup was the weak point, but the bullpen was the strength.
However, an eight-game losing streak in late May dropped the team to fifth place, and the loss of key hitters such as Son Asub and Park Gun-woo to injury in the middle of the season caused NC to plummet to the bottom of the standings in August, when the team lost 11 straight games, the most in its history. Foreign pitcher Castano was released due to injury, and the Korean starting lineup struggled except for Shin Min-hyuk. Davidson led the team in home runs, 파워볼실시간 but the overall offense was weak. The team was unable to move up any further in the standings from ninth place, and their hopes for fall baseball were dashed early.
NC explained the background by saying,
“We wanted to avoid an organizational culture where changing the manager and starting anew is a habitual practice. In particular, we believed in the continuity and continuity of the system and leadership with the goal of creating a sustainable strong team, so we continued to trust and support the field, but as the elimination from the top five was confirmed, we decided that it was time to focus on preparing for the 2025 season through a change of atmosphere and terminated the contract with manager Kang.”
Kang took over as NC’s acting head coach for the 2022 season on May 11, 2022, and was named head coach after the season, signing a three-year contract for the 2023-2025 season.
Kang has a career record of 401 wins, 197 losses, and seven draws in 197 games (including acting) for a .500 winning percentage.
Meanwhile, NC plans to continue its search for the next head coach with a wide range of candidates. “Starting with the change of manager, we will overhaul the entire organization and prepare for baseball that can give fans excitement and expectation again,” the NC said.