[breaking news] Samsung's Yuk Sun-yeop canceled the Sangmu in a surprise move → Why did he postpone it by a year before joining the military three weeks ago? The player wanted it."

*This content was translated by AI.

Samsung Lions right-hander Yuk Sun-yeop (21) canceled the military athletic unit (Sangmu) three weeks before joining the military. The player himself made the decision after careful consideration.

Samsung manager Park Jin-man said ahead of the 2026 Shinhan SOL KBO League regular season KT Wiz at Suwon KT Wiz Park on the 3rd, "Yuk Sun-yeop, who was supposed to go to Sangmu this year, gave up joining the army."

It's an unexpected decision. Yuk Sun-yeop is a right-hander who joined the 2024 KBO Rookie Draft as the fourth overall after graduating from Woo Jang-cho, Shinwol Middle School, and Jangchung High School. He played in the first division right away from his first year as a professional player and marked a total of 40 games, one loss, one hold, and an ERA of 5.63 and 33 strikeouts in 48 innings.

Based on these grades, I applied to the Sangmu last year and received a notice of acceptance. As scheduled, he was scheduled to enter the hospital on the 27th of this month.

But he had a strong will. Yuk Sun-yup has been one of the consistently acclaimed players in this spring camp. The results came in six exhibition games with one hold and one save with an ERA of 0 and six ⅓ innings with no outs and eight strikeouts.

In two regular-season games, he was disappointed with three walks and three strikeouts in two ⅓ innings. On the 2nd, he was excluded from the first team entry due to elbow pain. It is explained that there was lingering regret in the process.

Coach Park Jin-man said, "The injury is not big right now. I'm going to take about 10 days off and pitch, but (Yuk) Seon-yeop seems to have a desire to do it for another year."

"As you know, Sun-yeop was the MVP of this year's spring camp. When I went to the camp, I came out regularly at night to do weight training and train. He prepared well and showed good performance in the exhibition game. I felt like I was working really hard because I didn't miss a single day, but I think I was disappointed," he added.

No one knows what consequences this decision will lead to. Cancellation of Sangmu's enlistment is not an easy decision, but the head coach decided to respect the player's opinion.

Coach Park Jin-man said, "I would have thought a lot either way. He prepared that well for himself, but it would have been a shame to be out because he was sick, and it would have been a shame to go to the military when he was good. The player asked for it, and it was organized in a way that the club accepted it," he said.

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*This content was translated by AI.