You’re not out of options. Maybe it’s time to make changes now, not only for the present but also for the future.

The Lotte Giants of the Korean Baseball Organization cooled off in July after a hot May and June. Last week, the Giants went 3-3 and 5-5 against top-ranked Doosan and Samsung, but the results were disappointing. In particular, Samsung Electronics took a 4-1 lead in Daegu on the 21st but couldn’t score another run and fell behind. In the ninth inning, Samsung’s Ruben Cardenas hit a two-run homer to end the game, leading to a 5-6 loss. Closer Kim Won-joong attempted a five-out save, but was unsuccessful.

The reason the May/June vibe hasn’t carried over to the present is because the bats have gone downhill. After batting 29-for-7 with an OPS of .821 as a team in those two months, the offense plummeted to just 2-for-6 with an OPS of .703 in July. It was time for the offense to cool off and the graph to break. With no rebound from the pitching staff (4.89 ERA in May-June / 5.22 ERA in July), the offense couldn’t get going and the team’s performance suffered as a result.

The offense could be better in July.

If foreign-born Victor Reyes continues to perform consistently and Jeon Joon-woo, Go Seung-min, and Son Ho-young return from injury in time for July and the second half of the season, the team will be able to maintain the pace of the bats that carried them through May and June. However, Lotte’s batting lineup as a whole has slowed down and the players returning from injury have not been able to provide immediate support. Reyes is batting 4-for-5 (22-for-53) with three home runs, 11 RBIs, and an OPS of 1.089, Yoon Dong-hee is 2-for-8 (47-for-14) with one home run, eight RBIs, and an OPS of .847, and Na Seung-yup is 2-for-3 (41-for-12) with two home runs, eight RBIs, and an OPS of .916.

However, Hwang “Ma Huang” Seong-bin is batting just 1-for-4 (6-for-43) with one RBI and a .353 OPS, and Park Seung-wook, who has been on fire, is batting 1-for-5 (8-for-41) with four RBI and a .584 OPS. Most notably, Ko Seung-min, 파워볼사이트 추천 who is returning from injury, has struggled to find his groove, batting 1-for-8 (8-for-44) with two RBI and a .455 OPS. Son Ho-young has only played two games and is batting 1-for-4 (1-for-7) with one RBI.

Most of all, Jeon Jun-woo’s performance has been disappointing. Since returning from a calf tendon injury on June 26, he’s batting 2-for-6 (14-for-62) with four home runs, 13 RBIs, and an .801 OPS in 16 games. In the month of July, he’s batting 2-for-5 (13-for-51) with four home runs, 11 RBIs, and an OPS of .874.Despite his low batting average, he’s still producing a decent amount of power and runs batted in. He is one of the few hitters in the Lotte lineup who can hit home runs. He leads the team in home runs with 11, even after missing over a month. His long-ball power is one of the best even at the age of 38.

However, Jeon needs to do more at this point.

He can hit home runs, but his production in the run column is lacking. This season, he is just 2-for-16 (74 at-bats) with one home run, 27 RBI, and an OPS of .627 with runners in scoring position. Since July, he is just 2-for-2 with runners in scoring position (2-for-9). In high-leverage situations, he’s just 1-for-41 (6-for-6) with a .412 OPS, according to Baseball Prospectus.

His on-base percentage can vary from season to season, so it’s a regression to the mean. In his first four seasons as a free agent, from 2020 to 2023, Jeon had a 3.1 OPS with runners in scoring position, but this season his OPS with runners in scoring position is well below average. His utility value in center field, where he’ll be in a lot of runners in scoring position, is bound to drop at this point. In every game he has started this year, Jeon has batted 3-5 in the cleanup trio. In previous years, he would have been the center fielder because there was no one else to fill his role, but this is different.

The new core of Lotte’s batting lineup, dubbed “Yoon Go-Na-Hwang” (Yoon Dong-hee Go-Seung-min Na Seung-yup Hwang Sung-bin), has emerged. While Go Seung-min and Hwang Sung-bin are currently struggling, Yoon Dong-hee and Na Seung-yup have been able to sustain full-time seasons and have become the centerpiece of the batting lineup. While they won’t be able to replace Jeon’s long-hitting power in the center of the order right away, they can help boost runs scored and production in other ways. Son Ho-young is another player who can fill Jeon’s role, although he is still not fully fit after returning from a hamstring injury.

In other words,

If Jeon is ready and waiting at the bottom of the order, he can add weight to the bottom of the order. With catcher Yoo Kang-nam out for the season due to knee surgery and Park Seung-wook slumping, Jeon could be the centerpiece of the batting order.

Joon-woo signed his second free agent contract for 4.7 billion won ($4.7 million) ahead of this season, declaring himself a Lotte One Clubman. If he can regain his clutch ability, it would make sense to put him in the center field. We can’t dismiss Jeon’s career and experience right now. However, there are no immediate alternatives in the center field. The team’s batting order is not in good shape. It’s time for Kim Tae-hyung and the rest of the coaching staff to make a change.