“I will select a coach who presents interesting baseball.”
SSG Landers suddenly dismissed coach Won-Hyung Kim, who led the team to its first overall championship in the 2022 season, on the 31st. The club announced the termination of coach Kim's contract through a press release. The three-year partnership came to an end. There are speculations about the background to the sudden dismissal of the coach who won the championship and finished third. This is because it is not a typical hard case.
Coach Kim was promoted to head coach ahead of the 2021 season. At the time, the total amount was 700 million won, including 200 million won in down payment for two years and 250 million won in annual salary. It was the average level of treatment received by a novice director. At that time, it was SK Wyverns. Suddenly, he was acquired by SSG Landers in January of the 2021 season. Changed from SK's last manager to SSG's first manager.
In his first year in office, he only ranked 6th due to injuries to key pitchers, but he rose to the top by winning wire-to-wire from the opening to the last game of the 2022 season. In the Korean Series, they defeated Kiwoom Heroes and won their first championship since their founding. The club renewed the contract for a total of 2.2 billion won for three years, including a down payment of 700 million won and an annual salary of 500 million won. He received the highest treatment ever among domestic leaders. It was the peak of his leadership career.
In the first half of the 2023 season, there was a fierce competition for the lead with the LG Twins. However, the mound was shaken and the team failed to achieve a .500 winning percentage in the second half. Although they went through a crisis, they finished 3rd and advanced straight to the semi-playoffs. However, their short fall ended with a 3-game losing streak to the NC Dinos. Although they failed to win the championship for two years in a row, they made it to the fall stage.
However, the club suddenly fired coach Kim with two years left on the contract. Team owner Jeong Yong-jin responded to fans' demands for his dismissal by saying 'wait and see', and as expected, it came true. Why did they fire a coach who had excellent results? Since he obviously didn't like it, he would have cut his salary after compensating for 2 years worth of 1 billion won. Coach Won-Hyung Kim is the coach who came with the SK team when it was acquired. From now on, the owner can directly select the manager.
The SSG club emphasized, “I can assure you that the contract will not be terminated due to performance.” This is natural as he was the manager who won the team's first championship since its founding and ranked 3rd in the regular league. Instead, he explained the reason, saying, “Change and innovation were needed, including overall team management and player generation replacement.” He added, "I will appoint a manager who will present a more interesting baseball game to fans."
It remains to be seen what kind of new wind and change will be brought to the composition and management of the team. The reason for dismissing Director Kim must be shown in concrete form to understand the reason. The first button is the first team manager. The club chose fun baseball as its criterion for appointing a new manager. The first-team manager recruits to achieve results. If it's not for grades, it's meaningless