Ko’s new team, the Miami Marlins, sees him as a player who will contribute to the Major League.
In a video interview on the 5th (Korea Standard Time), Peter Bendix, president of the Marlins’ baseball operation division, said about the trade announced that day.
On this day, Miami agreed to a trade to give up infielder Luis Arraez, who was the No. 1 hitter in the 2022 and 2023 seasons, in exchange for first baseman Nathan Matorella (23), outfielder Dylan Head (19), Jacob Marsh (22), and right-hander Ko Woo-suk (25) from the San Diego Padres.
“It was a difficult offer to overlook for the long-term benefit of the club,” he said, explaining why he agreed to a trade in which he gave up the team’s flagship batter in the early days.
According to local media including The Athletic, Miami covers most of Arraez’s annual salary (10.6 million U.S. dollars). In fact, he used his annual salary to buy promising players.
Matolella, Head, and Masi are among the team’s promising players. Bandics stressed that it was a difficult offer to reject again, saying they were “a tremendous talent who has helped this team for a long time.”
Ko was playing in Double A, but he was not technically a “promising runner.” Miami seemed to be aware of this and sent him to Triple A alone.
Bendix called Ko “a player who had a good career in Korea,” and said, “When I come to an unfamiliar league from another country, I tend to face difficulties without speaking the language. However, we believe that he has the ability to adapt smoothly here,” adding that he is optimistic that he will successfully adapt to the U.S. stage.
“I like his ball power and his attitude. Looking at his performances in his career so far, we believe that he is a player who can contribute to the bullpen in the Major League,” he said, adding that Ko is a player who can contribute to the Major League.”
Meanwhile, he spent most of this interview explaining Arraez’s background in the trade. “Arraez is an incredible player and a really nice guy,” he said, protesting that trading him was a difficult decision.
“What we’ve done so far is disappointing. I can’t help our performance. I thought it would be right for this club to pursue future values at a time when chances are not high that we can advance to the postseason this year,” he said, explaining that he made the decision for the future.
Asked if it was okay to view the trade as the beginning of the rebuilding process, he replied, “My message is no different. One eye is on the present and the other eye is on the future. Our goal is sustainable success in the long run.” He sent a message to the players, saying, “We still have a lot of season left, so keep up the good work.” 메이저놀이터
Miami has repeated its history of selling off key players of its team. The latest trade deal could serve as an opportunity to increase despair and fatigue among its fans.
“I have a good understanding of the club’s history,” Bendix said. “Our vision is not to let the same thing happen as in 1997 (when there was a fire sale after winning the World Series). We want to build a team that competes consistently every season. And this goal is a difficult one to achieve. There are a lot of really smart people in this industry who are competing for poisonous goals. To make a team that wins more than 90 games every season, sometimes you have to make such difficult decisions,” he stressed again.