Kiwoom Heroes’ “late bloomer” free agent Chung Chan-heon has been struggling to pick up wins.
Kiwoom announced the signing of pitcher Chung Chan-heon as a free agent on March 27, just days before the start of the season on March 1. Chung, who applied for free agency after the end of last season and was unable to find a new team, signed a two-year contract with Kiwoom for a total of 860 million won, including a 200 million won signing bonus, 200 million won annual salary, and up to 260 million won in options.
After playing in universities and independent baseball organizations, Chung joined the Futures to get back into the swing of things and was first called up on March 29 to fill the fifth starter spot vacated after Jang Jae-young was sent down to the second team due to poor performance. 메이저놀이터
Jung tossed six innings of one-run ball against SSG on May 5 and LG on May 11, but was unfortunate to take the loss in both games as the offense was held scoreless while he was on the mound. Then, against Doosan on the 17th, he gave up six runs in four innings after giving up a big hit in the first inning.
His record this season is 3-3 with a 4.50 ERA, and while he maintained a quality start in each game, the losses piled up as he continued to struggle with the team’s bats. His last win in the first team was on July 2 last year against Hanwha, almost a year ago.
Chung will start against Suwon KT on the 23rd. The opponent is last-place KT, but they’ve been better than Kiwoom (2-4) in the last six games with three wins. In particular, they led Kiwoom (0.238) in team batting average (0.278) for the week. Kang Baek-ho (0.346), Kim Sang-soo (0.444), Park Byung-ho (0.455), and Jang Jang-woo (0.368) were hot.
Even if their opponents are at the bottom of the standings, Kiwoom is still in eighth place with 18 wins and 24 losses. They are only 2.5 games behind 9th-place Hanwha and 3.5 games behind 10th-place KT. The team’s rebuilding starts with stabilizing the starting rotation. Fifth starter Jeong Chan-heon and the team need to be on the same page if Kiwoom is to challenge for a winning series in 10 days.