Shortstop Mason McCoy (29), who was called up from the minor to fill the vacancy of Kim Ha-sung (29. San Diego), who left due to a shoulder injury, is doing unexpected good.
After being called up to the Major League on the 22nd, McCoy has a batting average of 0.375 (3 hits in 8 at-bats) and an RBI and two walks in the three games he played. His OPS, which combines on-base percentage and slugging percentage, is also outstanding with 0.875.
San Diego originally called up McCoy with the capacity to fill the time of about 10 days when Kim Ha-sung was on the injured list. Shortstop is a position with a heavy defense burden, so McCoy can be satisfied even if he is good at defense, but he is also good at hitting.
“McCoy is filling up Kim Ha-sung’s vacancy so well,” the San Diego Union-Turribune said. “He is good at defense as well as hitting. If this happens, San Diego can have another shortstop option in terms of player management in the future.” 토토사이트
This year is the last year of his four-year contract with San Diego. Although there is still an option for 2025 under mutual agreement between players and teams, Kim Ha-sung will reject it and will definitely appear in the FA market at the end of this season.
If San Diego does not have a shortstop option other than Kim Ha-sung, Kim Ha-sung naturally gets an advantage at the negotiation table. However, on the contrary, if there are other alternative resources such as McCoy, the opposite is likely to happen.
McCoy, a native of Illinois in the U.S., entered the professional league in 2017 with a total of 188 nominations by Baltimore in the sixth round of the Major League Rookie Draft. As the nomination ranking suggests, he was not a promising player in the spotlight when he was an amateur.
However, he showed rapid growth every year after entering the professional league, and tasted the sweetness of making his Major League debut as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays last year. Nevertheless, he never started a game, and only experienced a big league as a pinch-runner or a pinch-runner. He played in a total of six games, but only played at bat once. Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that his true big league debut is this year.
McCoy has already proven his defense through his long career as a minor player. Therefore, if he can prove his batting skills in the Major League, he can become another option in San Diego as diagnosed by the media. He has attracted attention as a shortstop with power enough to hit 22 home runs in a season with Triple-A in 2022.
Kim Ha-sung is currently on the 10-day injured list due to his shoulder injury. He can return to the team at the end of this month if he keeps track of schedule. However, there are variables that may not be the case. For McCoy, this period could be a golden opportunity to show off his skills in the majors.
Attention is focusing on how McCoy will be able to revive the golden opportunity he took in seven years of his minor league career.