There has never been a more chaotic month in the history of a club, even including the predecessor SK Wyverns. SSG Landers was caught in the whirlwind of the storm.
In a press release on the 25th, SSG announced that it had taken personnel measures against Kim Sung-yong, saying, "SSG is changing the position of Kim Sung-yong to head of the R&D center (formerly head of the development team) to take responsibility for the controversies that have arisen during the recent manager and coach appointments and the secondary draft process.
SSG has been in the news for the past month. While the LG Twins were celebrating after winning the Korean Series for the first time in 29 years, SSG has been making noise and creating controversial situations inside and outside the organization for a month.
First, on March 31, SSG fired last year's winning manager, Kim Won-hyung. Kim signed a two-year contract with SSG ahead of the 2021 season. He became the first manager in history to win a "wire-to-wire" championship without losing a single regular season title last year, and won the Korean Series as well, reaching the highest position in SSG's two years of existence.
Kim Won-hyung signed a three-year contract with SSG. It wasn't all smooth sailing. During the Korean Series last year, there were rumors about Kim's future. Most of the rumors were that he wouldn't be able to keep his job even if the team won the championship. In an unprecedented move, Kim announced his re-signing during the Korean Series.
The team didn't win the title this year, but they quickly fired Kim, who led the team to a third-place finish in the regular season and laid the foundation for a team that consistently made it to the postseason. The process of firing a winning manager after just one year, despite the team's poor fall baseball season, which included a three-game sweep in the semifinals, was shown.
"This was a difficult and painful decision. It's never a performance-based decision," the organization said, adding, "We conducted an intense internal review after the postseason. We realized that change and innovation were necessary for the team to continue to improve. We decided it was better to act sooner rather than later. Initially, we focused on player and coaching staff changes across the roster, generational changes, team management, and on-field operations." However, performance is not the only reason for a coach's dismissal.
Candidates were also leaked during the subsequent coach selection process. In the process, former head coach Kim Sung-yong directly mentioned the candidates, causing confusion. In the end, Lee Sung-yong was appointed, but it was hard to say that the process of selecting a new head coach went smoothly as it was practically open to the outside world.
However, the decisive trigger for Kim Sung-yong's demotion was the second draft, which took place on the 22nd. Everyone knew SSG had salary cap issues. It was expected that some highly paid veterans would be removed from the 35-man protected list in the process, and "generational change" was also a theme of SSG's secondary draft, which was mentioned when Kim Won-hyung was fired. In fact, it was reported that the list of protected players was organized based on this rationale. In fact, this is where SSG made the mistake of leaking the list of protected players, which should have been kept confidential. It failed in its internal enforcement and failed to show courtesy to its players.
Choi Joo-hwan, who was left off the 35-player protected list, was drafted by Kiwoom with the first overall pick in the first round and left the team. Everyone expected it and understood it, but in the fourth round, Hanwha selected Kim Kang-min. Kim was an iconic figure in the history of SK and SSG, having joined the organization in 2001 and being a one-club man for 23 years.
There were internal discussions about Kim's retirement, but SSG did not indicate that he was discussing retirement in the remarks section of the protected list. The word "contemplating" implied that he was willing to extend his career after all. This is how Hanwha interpreted Kim and designated him for assignment.
At 41, he's the oldest player in the KBO, but he can still play defense and is not completely rusty at the plate. With a weak outfield, Kim was just what Hanwha needed. Hanwha made the right call. 호텔카지노
SSG shot themselves in the foot. They were about to lose their 23-year one-club man. In the process, Kim Sung-yong panicked and added to the controversy by saying, "I didn't know he was going to be picked by another team". While explaining the process of removing Kim from the protected list, he also made a mistake by referring to the real name of a veteran player on the team who was not named by the other team.
In the end, SSG had to call for Kim's retirement to deflect criticism that they had let go of their one-club man for nothing. Handshake after handshake.
In the end, Kim visited the Daejeon Hanwha club office on the 24th to express his intention to extend his playing career, and Hanwha decided to include him in the list of pending players to be submitted on the 25th.
All of the above happened within a month. SSG is facing an unprecedented backlash after their early postseason exit. Of course, they brought it on themselves. Their unprofessional and amateurish handling of the situation has plunged SSG deeper into chaos than they should have to go.
The SSG said, "We plan to select candidates by establishing objective selection criteria as soon as possible, and then appoint a new leader." "Meanwhile, until the new leader is appointed, the role of leader will be centered on CEO Min Kyung-sam to ensure that there is no work gap.
