Kia is set to finalize its lineup of foreign players that will start the next season together. It renewed its contract with James Nail who played as the team's ace in 2024, and signed Adam Oler, a pitching pitcher with a total of 1 million U.S. dollars to be matched.토토사이트

On the document, a foreign hitter is still vacant. However, there is no significant change. He is close to signing Patrick Wisdom, 33, a corner infield resource, as an alternative for Socrates Brito, who played for three years. Kia also does not deny that all detailed negotiations have been completed. However, the final announcement has yet to be made as the physical examination has been delayed than expected.

He is expected to have no major physical problems. "I watched all the games that I played in the Mexican Winter League," said Shim Jae-hak, Kia's general manager. If he had any physical problems, he would have suspected something in hitting, running base or defense, but there was nothing like that at all. However, it was not easy to schedule a physical examination due to the U.S. year-end schedule, but the shooting has reportedly been completed recently. We will closely review it in Korea, and if there is no problem, we will officially announce the contract.

Wisdom is a highly anticipated resource in slugging capability. He also showed off his home run power in the Major League. It is hard to find a player like him in the KBO League, at least in terms of home run power. Wisdom, who debuted in the Major League with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2018, played for the Texas Rangers in 2019 and joined the Chicago Cubs in 2020, before showing off his slugging capability. He hit 28 home runs in 106 games in 2021, ranking fourth in the voting for the Rookie of the Year award in the National League, with 25 home runs in 134 games in 2022 and 23 home runs in 97 games in 2023. He is a batter with 20 home runs for the third consecutive year.

He has hit as many as 88 home runs in 455 games in the Major League. Of course, the ratio of strikeouts, swing and miss, and decrease in accuracy that are inevitably followed by home run hitters are clearly seen in the records. Nevertheless, the power of home runs that change the situation of the game is so attractive. Given that the main hitters such as Choi Hyung-woo and Na Sung-bum are getting older one by one, he is expected to strengthen his slugging capability.

Attention is focusing not only on how many home runs Wisdom will hit in the KBO League. Kia is also interested in organizing its position and traffic. Kia is one of the teams with the best base players in the league. Many players are performing well in the second division, but there are also cases where the base players are strong and thus do not perform well. He is a foreign player who has priority to play even when his skills are not poor. It is also interesting to see the topography of the fielders that will be changed by joining Wisdom.

Socrates was an outfielder. He mostly played center field. Wisdom can play various positions. During the seven years of the Major League, he played in various positions. He played 2,119 ⅔ innings at the third base, followed by the first base with 464 ⅔ innings. He also played 280 innings in three positions as an outfielder. However, chances are high that the first base will become the main position for now due to circumstances of the Kia team. The third base has Kim Do-young, who has become an inviolable zone. Wisdom also played the longest defense at first base in 2024. Outfielders went out and infielders came in.

Considering that Wisdom occupies the first base, it can be said that the fierce competition for first base for two to three years ends with the power of foreign players. In other words, players who competed for first base must go to other positions to increase efficiency. It is not easy for players who cannot see other positions to get a chance to play.

Lee, who was formerly the main first baseman, is highly likely to play in the outfield again. Since his debut, Lee has played in the outfield steadily. However, he also worked as a first baseman in 2024 to increase his position utilization and solve the team's most problematic issue, which was the first base. He has played at first base the most. There is no reason to put him at first base as he is more familiar with the outfield. Or, he could draw a scenario where he watches the outfield mostly and sometimes plays at first base late in the game.

On the other hand, in the case of players who cannot work both inside and outside, such as Lee Woo-sung, their positions become ambiguous. Byun Woo-hyuk, who has shown his potential this year, has the advantage of being able to play third base, but it is not easy to play in many games in reality with Kim Do-young holding out. It is more difficult for Oh Seon-woo and others, who are focused on first base.

Against this backdrop, some predict that many teams will focus on overlapping areas among Kia players. Kia was not interested in a 2024 trade with the team. As the team is ranking first, it did not have to strain itself. However, when the 2025 season starts, it could cause various problems, and as the team is aiming for its second consecutive win, it could have a time to consider strengthening its capacity. Usually, such a situation opens a gap in trade. It is very unlikely that a trade can be made right now, but some players give fairly high evaluations from other teams, which could become a topic that people would recall whenever they forget during the season.