*This content was translated by AI.
Noh Kyung-eun (42), the national pitcher and "the oldest hold king," and Cho Byung-hyun (24), the main closer, will go to camp with the Futures squad who dream of a brighter future.
SSG Landers will hold a Futures Spring Camp from the 25th to February 21st at Nishikibaru Baseball Stadium in Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan to boost the competitiveness and growth of key prospects in the 2026 season.
The core purpose of this camp is to elevate promising players to practical players who can be used directly in the first team, not just preparation resources.
SSG set this camp as a key section to complete the continuity of the development system leading to the "finishing camp – offseason – spring camp – regular season" and focused on substantially accelerating the team's future power. In particular, it is expected to be a turning point to expand the performance of the "promoter intensive fostering camp" held in Kagoshima in November last year and shift the club's fostering paradigm from "environmental provision center" to "first-tier power generation center."
To this end, SSG has significantly expanded the coaching staff (9 → 13) and squad (17 → 33) of Futures Camp compared to the previous year under the clear goal of strengthening the first-team depth and securing future power. This is a strategic decision to select and foster resources that can be used immediately in practice early by maximizing the competitive density within the team.
The club manages the participating players by dividing them into 1.5 groups – 2 groups – new groups, and provides a step-by-step competitive environment and customized guidance. It plans to operate an intensive fostering system that raises key prospects to higher-level power through "camp that must be proved," not just participation.
New players also focus on "growth potential" and "acceleration" rather than completeness. In the first round, three rookies will join the camp, and two more of the players who completed the build-up in the middle of the camp will be called up to create a structure in which competition and motivation naturally lead.
In addition, to strengthen the continuity of the development program, the NPB's 403 home run giant Takeshi Yamasaki will accompany the Miyazaki camp following the Kagoshima camp. The Yamasaki Instrumenter plans to check the growth flow of existing leaders and focus on establishing the structure of the hitting mechanism and improving attack productivity through one-on-one customized feedback.
In addition, Noh Kyung-eun and Cho Byung-hyun, who trained for the national team in preparation for the March 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC) in Saipan from the 9th to the 21st, will also join this camp. Last year, six veterans, including Choi Jung and Han Yu-seom, joined the Futures camp to pass on a lot of know-how to young players, and this time, those who have to head to the second camp of the Japanese Okinawa national team again on the 15th of next month will work with young pitchers here, not Florida, USA.
"This camp will be a more aggressive and bold place to challenge in preparation for the Cheongadom era," Futures coach Park Jung-kwon said. "We will not prepare for a camp for satisfaction, but to prove ourselves through fierce competition and to become a camp leading to entry into the first division."
Meanwhile, the SSG Futures team will hold a "preseason tour" in the southern and central regions from February 26 to March 11 after the end of the Miyazaki camp. He will play eight practice games with strong teams in the Futures League for about two weeks to finally check the performance of the camp and focus on maintaining his sense of practice before the opening of the season.
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*This content was translated by AI.
