“Eight players changed”: Starting with a question mark, the new KT is poised to stage a stunning comeback from third place in the first half to first place.

*This content was translated by AI.

"Eight players have been changed."

Manager Lee Kang-cheol (60) of KT Wiz, whom we met early this season, said this several times. A comparison of the starting LINEups for the regular-season opener between last year and this year revealed that 8 out of 9 players are new faces. In fact, with the exception of third baseman Heo Kyung-min, all starters were different from those a year ago.

KT, which finished sixth in 2025 and ended its five-year streak of postseason appearances, made sweeping changes to its lineup ahead of this season. The team signed free agents Choi Won-jun and Kim Hyun-soo and replaced its foreign hitter with Hilliard. There was a mix of hope and concern over whether the new experiment would succeed.

The start of the new KT was promising. Forming a top three with the Samsung Lions and LG Twins, they even held sole first place until May 17. However, showing signs of fatigue, they ultimately finished the first half in third place, trailing the top two, Samsung and LG, by 3.5 games.

A miraculous turnaround has occurred in the second half of the season. Since July 16, KT has gone 29 wins, 2 draws, and 11 losses in 42 games, posting an impressive .725 winning percentage to rise again. They have now climbed to first place, two games ahead of Samsung, aiming for a direct berth into the Korean Series.

KT recorded its 76th win of the season with a victory over the Hanwha Eagles on the 15th, matching the 76th wins (9 draws, 59 losses) achieved when they won the championship in 2021. They are also on the verge of breaking their franchise record of 81 wins (1 draw, 62 losses) set in 2020. Their winning percentage is currently 0.623, far surpassing their previous best of 0.566 in 2020.

KT will challenge the second-ever case in history where a team ranked third in the first half of the season secures the regular-season title. Since the 10th-team system began in 2015 and through last year, over an 11-year span, the team that finished first in the regular season was within the top two at least until the end of the first half in 10 of those years. In 2019, only the Doosan Bears were ranked third, trailing the first-place SK Wyverns (now SSG Landers) by eight games at the midpoint of the season, yet they staged a dramatic turnaround to finish first and ultimately capture the Korean Series championship.

It was a season that began with questions. However, KT's magicians are now stepping boldly toward creating new history.

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*This content was translated by AI.