Kang Jin-seong (30), who dreamed of becoming a successful compensation player at Doosan, suffered a slump in the first year of transfer and stamped his salary with a drastic cut.
On the 26th, Doosan Bears completed contracts with 50 of the 51 candidates for annual salary renewal for the 2023 season, excluding Lee Young-ha, who is on trial for school violence.
Infielder Kang Seung-ho was rewarded for his performance with the team’s highest raise (85 million won) and pitcher Jeong Cheol-won (233.3 percent), while outfielder Kang Jin-seong had the disgrace of recording both the highest cut and cut rate in the team. After receiving 130 million won last year, he signed a contract for the 2023 season at 80 million won, a reduction of 50 million won. Compared to last year’s salary, it was cut by 38.5%.
Kang Jin-seong came out of Gyeonggi High School and was nominated 33rd in the NC 4th round in the 2012 rookie draft. And the following year, he debuted in the first team, but he could not reach his potential for 7 years, including military service in the National Police Agency. It was 2020 that he made his name known. At that time, he hit 3.9 in 121 games, hit 12 home runs and 70 RBIs, finally ending his life of obscurity. He caused the syndrome of ‘one gang per day’, hitting home runs and hits at every decisive moment, and even tasted a thrilling overall victory by defeating Doosan in the Korean Series that year.
Kang Jin-seong experienced the ‘2nd year jinx’ for the second full-time season in 2021. Due to his injuries and frequent ups and downs, his 124 game performance plummeted to a batting average of 2.4, 9 runs, 7 homers and 38 RBIs. A fatigue fracture came to his left little toe, and he could not continue his momentum from the previous year.토토사이트
Doosan, who let go of Park Kun-woo, was attracted by the fact that Kang Jin-seong is a right-handed player resource who is good at outfield defense in addition to his main position of first baseman. It was evaluated as the best player who can simultaneously arrange the physical strength of first baseman Yang Seok-hwan and strengthen the depth of the outfield team consisting of Kim Jae-hwan, Jeong Soo-bin and Kim In-tae. Although he suffered a slump at the plate in 2021, it was largely affected by injuries, and he was confident that he would be able to fully reproduce the form of 2020 by returning to his hometown team.
However, there was no ‘one kang a day’ in Doosan. Even during the spring camp, he competed fiercely with Kim In-tae as a right fielder and hit a home run in 3 games after being included in the opening game roster. After the match against Hanwha on September 9, he was evaluated as having power outside of the 1st team, and he ended the transfer season in the 2nd division. His Futures League records were 34 games with a batting average of 2.8 par 8 with 11 RBI.
Kang Jin-seong was listed on the 46-man list for the 2023 Australian Spring Camp announced on the 19th. It means that he is still a resource that Doosan is attracted to. Last year, a replacement for Park Gun-woo did not appear, and manager Lee Seung-yeop will hold an audition for right field again in Australia, and Doosan is in a state of lacking right-handed guns. In addition, coach Lee also revealed his intention to reevaluate all players from the starting point at this spring camp. The door is still wide open for Kang Jin-seong.
There was no success story as a compensation player that Jinseong Kang, a ‘transfer student’, dreamed of. The first year was truly a series of disappointments, and then the annual salary of 100 million won collapsed. Attention is focusing on whether he will be able to reproduce the impact of three years ago in the 2023 season Lee Seung-yeop, who has been scratched by his pride of ‘one can per day’.