"You didn't recruit him because he was fast." What did Lotte expect from a trio of foreigners who admired Lee Kang-chul for 158km-157km-155km

*This content was translated by AI.

One of the most anticipated things for the Lotte Giants in the 2026 season is the performance of three foreign pitchers.

Lotte, which unfortunately finished the 2025 season, changed the composition of foreign pitchers. Unlike the foreign hitter who continued to accompany Victor Reyes (32) for three consecutive years, the mound was all changed. Instead, it was filled with fastball pitchers. The main characters are fastball right-hander Jeremy Bisley (31), "157km right-hander" Elvin Rodriguez (28), and "155km right-hander" Masaya Kyoyama (28).

Other clubs are already paying attention. Multiple KBO club officials said, "I'm looking forward to Lotte pitchers' performance this year," and KT Wiz manager Lee Kang-chul was one of them. Manager Lee Kang-chul said in an interview with reporters before leaving the spring camp, "Our new foreign pitchers (which changed this year) do not fall into other teams in terms of ball power," but added, "But it hurts to see foreign pitchers from other teams." In particular, Lotte pitchers showed interest, saying, "Really good players came."

It is not the first time that foreign fastball pitchers are preferred in the field. It is just difficult to bring in a fastball starting pitcher who runs the game with above-average ball control. In the U.S. and Japan, such pitchers are invited to spring camps every year. As such, there are one or two concerns for fastball outsiders who come to Korea. For example, Hanwha's foreign one-two punch Cody Ponce and Ryan Weiss, who commanded the league last year, were worried about their injury history and unverified history before the first season, respectively.

The same goes for Lotte pitchers this time. Elvin's fault is that he has little experience in starting. He has never played 140 innings in his career, and he has played more than 100 innings in only two seasons on the Single A stage seven years ago. His previous season's performance was also not good with a 9.15 ERA in seven major league games (19 ⅔ innings) and a 5.36 ERA in 29 Triple-A games (45 ⅓ innings).

Visley was worried about frequent injuries. While playing for the Hanshin Tigers in the Japanese professional baseball league (NPB) over the past three years, he has shown good performance when he is 10-8 with a 2.82 ERA and 143 strikeouts in 147 innings. However, he played more than 120 innings during his career due to shoulder injuries and other reasons only once in 2019.

Kyoyama's uncontrollable control is a headache. He allowed 160 walks in 277 ⅔ innings in 84 NPB games, 5.2 walks per nine innings. As a result, he was ordinary with 14 wins, 23 losses and an ERA of 4.60 despite his fastball, and failed to make the first-team stage last year. In the second-tier stage, he also had an 8.37 ERA with 21 walks and 20 strikeouts in 23 ⅔ innings in 25 games, with a whopping eight walks per nine innings.

However, Lotte judged that there was something that could work in the KBO league besides fastball arrest. In a recent phone call with Star News, a Lotte team official said, "It is right to judge that the most important thing in overcoming the batter at an important moment is the fastball. However, they are not just players chosen because they are fast-paced," he said. "I saw the overall capabilities of the players first. Even if the fastball speed is low, it is also comprehensively judged such as rotation speed and rotation axis. "I don't think it's better than a player who throws 145 kilometers just because he throws 150 kilometers per hour unconditionally," he said.

All three players are considered attractive as they have strong fastball pitches and breaking balls that act as crystal balls. In this case, depending on the pitching design, even a half-pitcher can be reborn as an ace. According to Lotte, Elvin has the ability and control to use various breaking balls such as cutters, sweepers, curves, and changeups. Bisley also has a slider with high pitch value and a breaking ball with excellent horizontal movement.

Less experience in selection is an injury issue that can be overcome in the Korean KBO League, which has relatively less travel distance than the United States and Japan. In the case of Elvin, he has fewer innings in the full season itself and has played more than half of the game as a starter, so he is less concerned than bullpen pitchers. According to the Lotte club, Elvin threw a maximum of 153 kilometers per hour and Bisley 148 kilometers per hour while currently pitching two bullpens in Taiwan's spring camp, raising expectations.

Kyoyama is also an attractive player with a fastball and a big splitter like a Japanese pitcher. According to Lotte, he is a player with a simple and soft pitching form, and his strength is the rotational power of his fastball and the trajectory of his breaking ball. Above all, I like Korean culture, so fast adaptability is also a positive part. Unlike NPB, which was highly competitive, Lotte, which has a relatively poor depth of pitching staff, can ease the burden and focus only on baseball.

Kyoyama also said in an interview before leaving the spring camp, "I just don't know, but there are many things I'm looking forward to. I think the level of baseball between Korea and Japan is not that different, so I think I want to pitch my own." "I'm ready to work hard in whatever role the team entrusts me to. I don't have a goal set by numbers, but I want to be a pitcher with a low ERA and more strikeouts because I want to help the team," he said.

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*This content was translated by AI.