Lotte has completed composition of foreign players to prepare for next season. It has signed a total of 1.5 million U.S. dollars (guaranteed amount of 1.35 million dollars and incentives of 150,000 dollars) with Charlie Barnes, a former foreign pitcher. Barnes will serve as the ace pitcher for the Lotte mound for four consecutive seasons.안전놀이터
For the position, Lotte has hired Tucker Davidson (28) without renewing his contract with Aaron Walkerson, the "soldier Jesus." The contract terms and conditions are a total of 950,000 U.S. dollars (guaranteed amount of 850,000 dollars and incentives of 100,000 dollars). Lotte, which chose Davidson over Walkerson who played the most innings (196.1 innings) this season, said he has a high RBI, good deception (winding motion during pitching), and throws various pitching types including fastball, slider, curve splitter, etc. Davidson is a left-handed starter who measures 188 centimeters tall and weighs 97 kilograms, and has pitched in 56 MLB games, with 4 wins and 10 losses and an earned run average of 5.76 earned runs. In this season, he played one big league game for Baltimore. In the minor league, he played in more than 600 innings in 142 games, recording 30 wins and 44 losses with an earned run average of 3.22.
A notable part of Davison's career was his 2021 MLB World Series start. Davison, who entered the professional league by being drafted by Atlanta in the 19th round of the 2016 MLB Rookie Draft, made his MLB debut in 2020. He then took the mound as the starting pitcher for Atlanta in Game 5 of the 2021 World Series. The game was not good, allowing four runs (two earned runs) over two innings.
Davison is known not to throw fiery fastballs, but to manage the game by controlling the speed with fastballs in the mid-to-late 140km range and various breaking balls. Considering the fact that he pitched more than 600 innings in the minor leagues, it is expected that he will be able to play long innings as a starting pitcher. It is not easy to predict next season's performance with the figures revealed on the record as foreign pitchers' performance varies depending on their adaptation to the domestic stage, apart from their MLB career. Davison said, "I'm happy to join a great team called Lotte," adding, "I'll do my best to win the team, and I want to communicate steadily with my colleagues and work together to win."
With the addition of Barnes and Davidson, three left-handed pitchers including Kim Jin-wook, who recently canceled his enlistment in Sangmu, are expected to form the starting rotation for Lotte next year. It is unusual for a left-handed pitcher to take up three on the starting mound. If other right-handed pitchers are added in addition to right-handed pitcher Park Se-woong, who is a native ace, the Lotte mound is expected to have right-handed and left-handed starting pitchers take the mound alternately.
Meanwhile, Lotte, which has completed its formation of foreign players, will hold its first training camp in Tainan, Taiwan from January 24 to February 21 next year, and hold its second training camp in Miyazaki, Japan, until March 5 to prepare for next season.