“Choi Joo-hwan in the first round? We were lucky.”
Kiwoom head coach Ko Hyung-wook was all smiles.
The Kiwoom Heroes selected Choi Joo-hwan from the SSG Landers with the first overall pick in the KBO League Secondary Draft held at The K Hotel in Yangjae-dong, Seoul on April 22.
Born in 1988, Choi will be 36 years old next year. However, he still has enough power to hit 20 home runs this season. He finished the season with a .233 batting average, 20 home runs, 63 RBIs, and a .742 OPS.
He switched from the Doosan Bears to the SSG Landers after the 2020 season. He signed a four-year, 4.2 billion won free agent contract. However, SSG removed him from the protected list due to his poor performance over the past three years.
He still has a contract worth 650 million won next year. But Ki did not hesitate. As soon as the second round of the draft began, 먹튀검증 he immediately called out Choi’s name.
“We were lucky to have him in the first round,” Ko said, “He’s a player who can play any position. He’ll fill in the gaps in our batting lineup. He’s the best fit for us right now.”
Kiwoom has struggled with the lack of explosiveness in his batting lineup this year.
It goes against the grain of Kiwoom’s philosophy, which has been to pick younger, less expensive players whenever possible. However, Kiwoom explains that the team was desperate for long-hitting power.
“We have a lot of young players on the team. “We picked the best players (in the second round of the draft),” he said, “but we also kept in mind that the team will be stronger if the new and old harmonize well. We’ll leave it up to the coaches on the field to utilize them in different positions,” he added.
“I have certain expectations. He showed this year that he can hit 20 homers, and I have no doubt he’ll do even better next year.”