“We have a lot of promising players on the team.”
Lee Jin-young, 43, a former KBO and national team player, is in charge of Samsung’s first-team hitting. He is determined to help the team perform better. Although he will be away from his family, he emphasized that it will be a good opportunity.
On March 3, Samsung announced that it has hired six new coaches, including first-team pitching coach Jung Min-tae, hitting coach Lee Jin-young, first-team general manager Jung Yeon-chang, futures manager Jung Dae-hyun, pitching coach Kang Young-sik, and futures general manager Kim Ji-hoon.
In addition, three trainers were brought in, including first-team trainer Yeom Sang-chul, Futures trainer Heo Jun-hwan, and rehabilitation trainer Kim Yong-hae. “We wanted to focus on strengthening not only the technical part but also the training part,” Samsung said.
After the announcement, Coach Lee Jin-young said, “I don’t think Samsung’s batting lineup was bad this year. I think they did well enough. Especially, they have a lot of good lefties and young hitters. I’m thinking about what I can do to help them.”
“It’s my role to help the players grow. That’s what the club is looking for. I’ll try to help the veteran players improve their form so they can play well. I think it’s important to contribute to the team’s performance.”
Samsung finished the 2024 season in eighth place. They dropped one spot from last year’s seventh place. The offense was unbalanced. The mound was a disappointment, with the team’s lowest ERA (4.60), but the bats were just as bad. The team is sixth in batting average at .263 and seventh in OPS at .702. 무지개토토 도메인
After the season, Samsung began a reorganization, and the appointment of Lee Jong-yeol was a sign. It was an internal promotion. For the first time ever, the team had a former professional player in charge. It’s a sign of change, and Lee Jong-yeol is getting busy.
The first result is the recruitment of the coaching staff. They have a lineup of national-level coaches. The first-team batting coach is Lee Jin-young. Lee is a 20-year professional hitter with 2125 hits, a .305 batting average, 169 home runs, 979 RBIs, and an OPS of 0.812. He was also a national team regular. He was even nicknamed the “National Right fielder”.
He truly dominated the KBO. He retired after the 2018 season and traveled to Japan for coaching training. He became the coach of Chinjung SK in 2020, and continued to work as a coach after the team changed to SSG. He left SSG at the end of this season and will wear a Samsung jersey.