The Lotte Giants have once again entered a period of great innovation.
Lotte announced through a press release on the 20th that it had appointed former Doosan coach Kim Tae-hyung as the 21st coach. The contract period is 3 years and the contract was signed for a total of 2.4 billion won (down payment of 600 million won, annual salary of 600 million won).
New coach Kim Tae-hyung graduated from Shinil High School and Dankook University, joined the OB Bears in 1990, and played as a player until 2001. Immediately after his retirement, he began his leadership career by serving as a battery coach at the Doosan Bears and SK Wyverns, and began his first managerial career in 2015, serving as the head coach at the Doosan Bears for eight years.
He rose to the ranks of great players with his charisma and operational ability, including experiencing the Korean Series for 7 consecutive years from 2015 to 2021. After his contract with Doosan ended in 2022, he worked as a commentator for SBS Sports this year.
Coach Kim Tae-hyung said through the club, “I am well aware of the weight of the position of manager of the Lotte Giants. I am grateful to Lotte fans and club owner Shin Dong-bin for choosing coach Kim Tae-hyung. “He will repay the expectations of fans who have waited for a long time and achieve results,” he said.
The appointment of coach Kim Tae-hyung was one that contained a lot of Chairman Shin Dong-bin’s intentions. Since Coach Sutton stepped down at the end of August, the club has been talking closely with the group, and this week, the team gained momentum with the appointment of coach Kim Tae-hyung. The first-time manager was a club and landlord that was not even nominated in the first place.
In the process of selecting a new manager, Chairman Shin Dong-bin presented guidelines for the new manager, saying, ‘I hope to bring in someone who has leadership skills and can improve the team’s capabilities and performance while playing winning baseball, as well as someone who is experienced in developing players.’ . In the end, director Kim Tae-hyung was chosen as the person who fits this requirement.
On the 17th, at the Choi Dong-won Award ceremony, CEO Lee Kang-hoon spoke to reporters and said, “It is true that director Kim Tae-hyung is a candidate for director. “But I haven’t met him yet and I haven’t even talked to him on the phone,” he said, adding, “I think he needs to quickly move on to appointing a director.” CEO Lee moved immediately after that day and met with director Kim Tae-hyung on the morning of the 20th to sign the contract.
In addition, Lotte also announced plans to appoint the next general manager on this day. At the end of 2019, General Manager Sung Min-gyu was dismissed along with the appointment of Manager Kim Tae-hyung.
Literally, Lotte once again fell into the vortex of great revolution. After the worst season in 2019, general manager Seong Min-gyu was appointed as the person who will lead the change in the club. He was a former major league scout and was expected to bring a new wind to Lotte. He said he would change Lotte by running the club based on ‘process’.먹튀검증
As a former major league scout, he strengthened his determination to play data baseball by introducing drive lines and data equipment. He also said he would significantly reorganize his team and focus on nurturing them.
But it didn’t produce any results. From 2020, it stayed in 7th, 8th, 8th, and 7th place. Although there was some success in the rookie draft, there was some noise related to team management. There was friction with former coach Heo Moon-hoe and former coach Larry Sutton, and both resigned midway. In the meantime, the group and the club focused their efforts on the direction of General Manager Seong Min-gyu, but the results revealed that the direction was wrong.
Although we have been leading the change since the end of 2019, the change did not occur in a positive direction. Changes to the team through trade etc. failed and the performance failed to make up for it. I failed to improve my constitution in any direction. In the end, I chose to break up with Director Seong Min-gyu.
Meanwhile, Lotte will hold an inauguration ceremony at Lotte Hotel Busan Sapphire Room (41F) on the 24th and meet with the players during the final training session at Sangdong Stadium on the 25th.