How did this historic achievement come to be? Following advice from Avila, Ryu Hyun-jin's slider velocity increased by 7 km/h, making Kim Min-jun the 10th pitcher in KBO history to follow in the footsteps of Ryu Hyun-jin and So Hyoung-jun.

*This content was translated by AI.

SSG Landers' Kim Min-jun (20) has issued a challenge to the legendary rookie lineage in KBO League history.

On the 12th, at the Incheon SSG Landers Field during the home game against Lotte Giants in the 2026 Shinhan SOL KBO League regular season, Kim Min-jun led his team to a 9-1 victory with 6 innings pitched, allowing 3 hits (including 1 home run), issuing 1 walk, recording 3 strikeouts, and surrendering only 1 earned run.

There was not even a significant crisis. Even the 4th-inning crisis with one out and runners on first and second base after consecutive hits to Han Dong-hee and Ko Seung-min was resolved by inducing a strikeout from Yoon Dong-hee looking. After the game, Kim Min-jun criticized himself, saying, "I aimed for seven innings because my pitch count was low today, but I couldn't make it due to the crisis in the 4th inning. Once I got two outs, I threw too hard to Han Dong-hee, leading to a hit and the crisis."

However, Kim Min-jun achieved his fifth quality start (QS) of the season—defined as six or more innings pitched with three or fewer earned runs—and secured his fifth win (with two losses). Five rookie wins in a debut season as a starter is the second-best record in KBO history, shared with current SSG first-division bullpen coach Lee Seung-ho (45) from 2000. This surpasses the joint third-place records set by Yoon Gil-hyun (43) in 2002, Kim Kwang-hyun (38) in 2007, and Song Young-jin (22) in 2023. The top spot in this category belongs to current KT Wiz first-division pitching coach Je Chun-mo (44), who recorded nine wins in the 2002 season.

Additionally, his four consecutive quality starts since the match against Busan Lotte on the 23rd of last month mark the 10th time a high school rookie has achieved this in their debut season in KBO history. The most recent instances were Ryu Hyun-jin (39, Hanwha Eagles) in 2006 and So Hyoung-jun (25, KT Wiz) in 2020. This is the second time for SSG since Je Chun-mo in 2002. When asked about this, Kim Min-jun replied, "I heard it's a rare record, so I feel good. I will try to achieve another quality start in the next game as well."

On this day, Kim Min-jun dominated Lotte batters with a total of 92 pitches, including a fastball reaching up to 148 km/h (51 pitches), a forkball (20 pitches), a slider (13 pitches), and a curveball (8 pitches). His pitching was notably efficient, finishing all innings except the 4th and 6th with no more than 13 pitches. In particular, besides his signature splitter, his slider served effectively as a decoy pitch, aiding in quick count battles.

The slider is well known to have improved after receiving advice from Pedro Avila (30), who recently joined SSG last month. According to Kim Min-jun, he asked Avila why the slider kept dropping and received advice to think of his thumb position as if throwing a fastball.

As a result, both velocity and angle increased, making the pitch behave like a cutter. Batters began swinging at it thinking it was a fastball, leading to easy outs. It has become a reliable third pitch. In fact, before Avila joined, Kim Min-jun's average slider velocity was 129.9 km/h, but it steadily increased afterward, reaching a high of 138 km/h and an average of 136.4 km/h on this day. He shattered the evaluation from his high school days that his pitch repertoire was monotonous in just one year.

Kim Min-jun said, "I have confidence in my fastball, so I throw fastballs on the first and second pitches to lure batters with breaking balls, but I try to throw them at full power." He added with a smile, "Coach Avila suggested that when throwing the slider, I should focus more on the trajectory than hand feel. Throwing it that way definitely increased my velocity. Today, it reached 138 km/h, which seems like an increase of about 10 km/h (actually 7 km/h) compared to usual."

During high school, Kim Min-jun was known as a power pitcher with 10 wins in 20 games over three years, an ERA of 2.16, and 104 strikeouts in 78⅔ innings, averaging 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings. As a result, he won the grand prize in the baseball category at the '2025 Futures Star Awards' held last November and was selected as the fifth overall pick in the first round of the 2026 KBO Rookie Draft by SSG.

In his professional debut this year, he recorded five wins and two losses in 10 games with an ERA of 3.81 over 49⅔ innings and 36 strikeouts. Although his strikeout rate decreased compared to high school, this was intentional.

Kim Min-jun emphasized, "When I take the mound, I try not to force strikeouts but rather induce them. In high school, trying for strikeouts worked well, but in the pros, trying too hard led to more walks. My goal is to pitch many innings with a low pitch count."

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*This content was translated by AI.