Venezuelan right-hander Mario Sanchez is the favourite to replace foreign pitcher Adonis Medina with the KIA Tigers.토스카지노
On 22 June, KIA removed existing foreign pitcher Adonis Medina from the first team roster. Medina made a start against Hanwha in Daejeon on 21 June and was pulled early after giving up three runs on two hits and three walks in two innings. In his last three starts, Medina has been removed from the mound after failing to complete the fifth inning.
In 12 appearances this season, Medina is 2-6 with a 6.05 ERA, 36 strikeouts, 29 walks and a 1.60 WHIP. He had only three quality starts in those 12 appearances. The Kia bench’s patience with Medina, who hadn’t been able to overcome his nagging velocity issues, had finally run out. The move to replace him was official.
We had already sent key scouts to the US and elsewhere to keep an eye on the situation. However, the current situation in the foreign market is not good. All the teams that have recently sought replacement foreign pitchers have opted for the ‘old school’ approach. After releasing Dylan Pyle, the Doosan Bears reacquired Brandon Waddell from the Taiwanese League, who pitched for the team last year. KT WIZ released Bo Schuler and reunited with William Cuevas, who had recovered from an elbow injury.
A baseball insider familiar with the foreign player market said, “The pitching pool has dried up in the U.S. as well, and starting pitchers are hard to come by, even with transfer fees. The fact that Kiwoom, which moved ahead of the KIA team, found a replacement player from an independent league team is a good indication of the local situation.”
KIA has also started looking for replacement foreign pitchers in this difficult foreign market situation. Thomas Pannoni, who played for the team last year, is on the short list. He was recently designated for assignment after being called up to the major leagues. However, KIA first turned its attention to Taiwan rather than Panoni, whose future is unclear.
According to local reports on 2 July, Kia was interested in signing Mario Sanchez from the Tung Yi Lions of the Chinese Baseball Professional League (CBPL). The official Twitter account of the CPBL Stags said on 2 July that KIA has signed Mario Sanchez, who played for the CPBL Tung Yi Lions.
A KIA representative said, “Mario Sanchez is one of the candidates for signing. However, the contract has not been finalised yet.”
Mario Sanchez is a right-handed pitcher from Venezuela, born in 1994, with a height of 185cm and weight of 75kg. In the 2023 season, he played 10 games (9 starts) for the Tung Yi Lions, going 8-1 with a 1.44 ERA, 42 strikeouts and 11 walks.
Like Doosan’s Brandon, he is making a mid-season move from the Taiwanese League, so he shouldn’t have too many problems adjusting to the Asian League. Outside of Yang Hyun-jong, KIA’s starting rotation is currently unstable. If the signing of Mario Sanchez becomes official in the coming days, KIA will be able to stabilise their starting rotation and mount a late-season comeback.