According to a Samsung official who met at the match against Doosan in Jamsil on the 9th, it is known that the club has parted ways with Suarez, who is currently recovering from an injury, and is preparing to recruit Widener, who has been announced as a waiver in NC. It seems that an official announcement will be made sooner or later confirming the recruitment of Widener. On the 10th, Samsung requested Suarez to disclose a waiver to the KBO.
After a sluggish first half, Samsung managed to rebound with 9 wins, 1 draw and 8 losses in July and 4 wins and 4 losses in August. However, due to an unexpected injury, one of the one-two punches had to leave. Foreign pitcher Suarez complained of discomfort in his left leg in the Daegu LG game on the 6th and was replaced early. It was a major injury that took at least four weeks to recover from.
Samsung immediately looked for a replacement starter in the Futures League, but there was no suitable player to call up. Heo Yun-dong and Choi Ha-neul are constantly circulating in the starting rotation, but coach Park Jin-man showed a cautious attitude in Jamsil two days ago, saying, “I think we need to watch the futures league situation a little longer.”
To make matters worse, left-hander Choi Chae-heung, from the first nomination, also became a losing pitcher again on the 8th against Doosan in Jamsil with 5 runs in 5 innings (4 earned runs). Choi Chae-heung was a player who raised expectations after being discharged from the army last year by playing an overwhelmingly good fight with an average ERA of 1.79, 10 wins, 7 wins, and an undefeated average in Sangmu. When Samsung suffered sluggishness at the beginning of the season, they waited for Choi Chae-heung’s discharge in June.
After completing his military service, Choi Chae-heung had a successful discharge ceremony with 5⅓ innings scoreless against Jamsil LG on June 13, but this was his first and last good fight. He was excluded from the first team power as he suffered 3 losses with an ERA of 7.27 without a win in 8 games. During 8 games, the quality start was ‘zero’, and the WHIP (on-base per innings allowed rate) soared to 1.76 and the batting average to .338, causing disappointment.
Samsung, who lost two starters while dreaming of ‘8 Chi All’, eventually requested an SOS from Widener, who was released from NC on the 4th. Widener, who has 49 major league careers, wore an NC uniform for a total of $743,000 prior to the season, 안전놀이터 but suffered the pain of being announced as a waiver with an average ERA of 4.52 in 11 games. Samsung dropped Widener as a substitute for Suarez when Widener showed signs of rebound in the KBO League match against KT on July 28 (2 runs in 6 innings) and against Lotte on August 3 (1 run in 7 innings).
However, even if Samsung goes to fall baseball with a miraculous rebound, Widener will not be able to play. This is because of KBO rules that players who transfer to waivers after August 1 cannot play in the postseason.
Nevertheless, the reason why Samsung brought Widener is interpreted as a willingness to finish the season at least one level higher through the remaining 47 games. It is also a way to raise young players in the Futures League to gain experience in the first team, but with Choi Chae-heung leaving, two starting positions were vacated, and with two foreign pitchers at the fore, they somehow managed to win against 5th place Doosan (9.5 games). It seems to have embraced foreign pitchers who can only play in the regular season to narrow it down.
“Our players work so hard and the atmosphere is so good. The coach made the atmosphere so good in the second half that the players exert a lot of energy,” he said. “It is baseball that you do not know what will happen. We can win 10 or 20 in the remaining games. It is important not to give up until the end. Even if you are in the bottom ranks, you have to try to win somehow in order to rebound.”