William Cuevas, 33, who led KT Wiz to its first championship, is back.
“We have signed William Cuevas as a replacement for foreign pitcher Bo Schuler for a total of $450,000 (approximately 500 million won),” KT announced on March 9.스포츠토토
Cuevas is a familiar name to KBO fans. From 2019 through last year, he appeared in 82 games (486⅓ innings) with a 33-23 record and 3.89 ERA. In 2021, he was dominant in the first-place game and postseason, leading KT to its first overall title in franchise history. However, he was injured in the middle of last season and was released after only two games.
After an unfortunate departure, Cuevas returned to KT a year later. The opportunity for Cuevas came when KT foreign pitcher Bo Schuler was released after a poor performance with a 1-7 record and a 5.62 ERA in nine games (49⅔ innings).
“I wanted to bring in a stable and good pitcher, but if you look at other teams, the pool of foreign pitchers is not good. Cuevas knows our pitches and has no acclimatization issues. The important thing is the injury, and he passed the medical, so there was no reason not to use him,” he said, explaining why they brought him back.
Cuevas is scheduled to arrive in Korea on Nov. 12 and join the squad. Lee said, “I understand that he will arrive at dawn on Monday. I’m going to stay still. Then he will come to throw first, saying, ‘I’m fine, I’m fine,'” Lee laughed. He continued, “I pitched 75 pitches before coming to Korea. I’ll be fine,” he added.
[OSEN=Daegu, Eunjung Cho] On the afternoon of Oct. 31, the Samsung Lions and KT Wiz played a “tiebreaker” game for the 2021 KBO League regular season title at Samsung Lions Park in Daegu, South Korea.In the bottom of the seventh inning, KT starter Cuevas celebrates in the dugout after striking out Samsung’s Lee Won-seok to end the inning. 2021.10.31 /cej@osen.co.kr
With good foreign pitchers hard to come by, Cuevas is an attractive resource. Cuevas reportedly received offers from other teams before deciding on KT. “From what I heard, there were contacts from other teams,” Lee said, “but he said he wanted to go to KT. It would have been better for him to come to our team,” Lee said.
“If it were me, I’d go to Lotte or LG. I’m an idiot,” Lee joked, adding, “This must be Jung. He must have had a lot of good feelings because he won the championship with our team, and when he left at the end, we gave him a lot of hospitality. We went up to the podium in front of the fans and said goodbye to them, but no foreign player leaves like that. I think that’s why I was so touched,” he said, recalling his fond memories of Cuevas.
With the addition of Cuevas, the final piece of the puzzle for the starting lineup, Lee Kang-chul said, “We shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves. We shouldn’t get too excited,” he said, but added, “With Cuevas and Benjamin settling in and Ko Young-pyo, Uhm Sang-baek, and Lee Jeong-sung improving a lot, we’ll be able to play a more interesting game.” He looked forward to the performance of the starters.