The Lotte Giants of the professional baseball league have successfully renewed their contract with Charlie Barnes, who had been agonizing over the challenge of the U.S. Major League Baseball (MLB) and remaining in the KBO League. Lotte has completed the composition of foreign players to share next season by recruiting Victor Reyes as a new foreign hitter. 토토사이트
Lotte announced on Wednesday that it renewed its contract with Barnes for a total of 1.35 million dollars (guaranteed amount of 1.2 million dollars, incentive of 150,000 dollars). Barnes, who has been on the mound for two consecutive seasons since 2022, is a left-handed pitcher who posted 23 wins, 22 losses, 356 innings, and an ERA of 3.46 ⅔ innings in the KBO League. This season, he played 170 games and ⅓ innings in 30 games, recording 11 wins, 10 losses and an ERA of 3.28. Notably, he showed tremendous performance in the second half of the season with his ERA of 2.05, ranking first in the entire league.
Barnes, who has performed well, has been weighing the MLB challenge and remaining in the KBO league after this season. In fact, a local media outlet in the U.S. said, "Some MLB clubs are interested in recruiting Barnes. Barnes is now officially an FA." Amid this situation, there have been voices of concern that the renewal of the contract may have gone down the drain due to prolonged negotiations between Lotte and Barnes. As Lotte also looked for other alternative foreign players in preparation for the failure of the renewal of the contract, the negotiations fell into a mystery.
However, as Barnes decided to play for one more season in the KBO league, Lotte succeeded in catching all the existing foreign "one-two punches." Earlier last month, Lotte renewed its contract with Aaron Wilkerson, who it recruited as a substitute for Dan Staley, for a total of 950,000 dollars.
Regarding Barnes's renewal, Lotte said, "We have achieved 10 wins in two consecutive seasons in the KBO League, especially in the second half of this season," adding, "We highly evaluated our steady ability to play innings and are the proven first-choice left-handed resources who have completed their adaptation to the league." Barnes said, "I'm happy to have the opportunity to be with Lotte again. I want to return to Busan as soon as possible and throw the ball in front of the fans who send me the best support."
Lotte acquired Victor Reyes as a new foreign hitter. Lotte excluded Nico Goodrum from its list of pending foreign hitter last month, and has been searching for a foreign player to replace him. As a result, outfielder Reyes born in Venezuela was finally chosen. Reyes, who is 196 centimeters tall and weighs 87 kilograms, is a switch hitter who can play both at bat. He recorded a batting average of 0.264 in 394 games in five seasons in the MLB. He proved his slugging capability by hitting 20 home runs in Triple-A under the Chicago White Sox this season. "I hope Reyes will quickly adapt to the KBO League and play a central role in the team's batting lineup through his athletic ability and attitude toward baseball," Lotte General Manager Park Jun-hyuk said.
Lotte also announced the recruitment of left-hander Lim Joon-seop. After joining the KIA Tigers in 2012, Lim will return to his hometown team after playing for the Hanwha Eagles and the SSG Landers. Lim is a Busan man who graduated from Busan Middle School, Kaesong High School, and Kyungsung University. After recruiting Jin Hae-soo in a trade earlier, Lotte has been steadily strengthening its left-hander bullpen session by bringing in Lim Joon-seop.