'3-Year, 2.4 Billion Won' Kim Tae-hyung Never Even Came Close to Autumn Baseball During Contract Period! PS Possibility Effectively Vanished → 'Tragic Number' Stands at '12'

*This content was translated by AI.

Kim Tae-hyung (59), who ascended to the helm of Lotte Giants with an unprecedented contract worth a total of 2.4 billion won over three years, sees his final season slipping away in vain. The possibility of Lotte reaching the postseason has become slim, and even arithmetic chances have converged to zero.

On the 6th, Lotte fell 2-8 to Hanwha Eagles in a home game at Busan Sajik Stadium. Although they barely escaped a six-game losing streak, they immediately fell back into a three-game slump, suffering another sweep by Hanwha at home. At the same time, they failed to break the humiliating record of going winless in all eight home games against Hanwha this season.

According to 'psodds.com', a site that calculates and publishes KBO League postseason qualification probabilities based on Pythagorean winning percentage and remaining games, Lotte's chance of reaching the playoffs dropped below 0.1% as of the conclusion of the game on the 6th, making elimination virtually certain. The gap with fifth-place Doosan Bears has widened to 10 games, and only a 'tragic number' of 12 remains to officially seal Lotte's fate for missing autumn baseball. In effect, under Kim Tae-hyung's leadership, Lotte has collapsed without even touching the top five in three consecutive years, following seventh-place finishes in both the 2024 and 2025 seasons.

Although manager Kim Tae-hyung led Doosan Bears to seven straight Korean Series appearances and three championships during his tenure there, his three years in Busan have left only painful scars. Unlike the solid roster he had with Doosan, he failed to spark any significant turnaround at Lotte, leading some within the baseball community and fans to harshly label him as someone whose past glory was merely a product of the powerful Doosan squad he once managed.

At the scene, there are also criticisms that blaming players or citing roster weaknesses will not hold water for a veteran manager who received an unprecedented 2.4 billion won contract over three years. Ultimately, with Kim Tae-hyung unable to bring Lotte even close to the postseason during his entire three-year contract period, it is widely assessed that the club's top management has completely lost any justification to pursue a contract renewal.

Even excluding manager Kim Tae-hyung himself, Lotte's autumn baseball clock has been stopped since 2017 and has now remained frozen for nine years. Despite bringing in a proven veteran manager at a huge cost, the club has failed not only to achieve a short-term performance rebound but also to implement fundamental improvements such as cultivating solid starting-level prospects or strengthening team depth. With little hope of a turnaround during the remaining games, Lotte once again faces the daunting task of reconsidering its rebuilding efforts from scratch.

<© STARNEWS. All rights reserved. No reproduction or redistribution allowed.>

*This content was translated by AI.