In the end, the LG Twins chose to say goodbye to Casey Kelly. Up until 15 days ago, they had planned to accompany the Twins until the 2024 season, but the mood rapidly changed over the past few days.
Kelly played a farewell game of tears against the Doosan Bears in Jamsil on the 20th. It was the last game on the mound wearing an LG uniform. As soon as the game was declared a rain-free game on the 20th, LG announced its contract with Eliaser Hernandez (440,000 dollars in total, 600 million won). ííŽėë°
It was late May when LG was tinkering with a foreign pitcher replacement card. Manager Yeom Kyung-yeop gave an ultimatum, saying, “I think we need to replace one of the two.” LG is aiming to win the title as the “defending champion,” but as of May 25, N.S. and Kelly’s ERA stood at 5.43 and 5.72 respectively, ranking 21st out of 22 pitchers who met the stipulated innings, which deserves consideration. LG’s general manager Cha Myung-seok left for the U.S. in late May to inspect the replacement of foreign pitchers.
“When Cha Myung-seok left the country in late May, we found a good candidate,” coach Yeom Kyung-yeop said. “I thought a lot about it. Kelly’s performance improved after the beginning of the season last year. At the same time, I gave up replacement because I thought it was important to finish well (as he has been accompanying me for six years).”
Coincidentally, Kelly and Ence showed a reversal after the club’s active movement, which forced them to hesitate to replace them.
“Even after the end of the first half, I agreed with Cha to stay with him until the end of this year,” Yeom Kyung-yeop confessed. He highly values Kelly’s influence on the team both inside and outside the dugout, even though he is not the same as he was before. He also expected to gain speed and regain momentum.
However, the team showed poor performance by allowing nine hits and five runs in five innings at the match against the Kia Tigers on Sunday, and lost eight hits and two runs in six innings at the match against the Hanwha Eagles on Sunday, but the team still failed to meet expectations. “Detailed data was even lower than in the first half,” Yeom said. “At that time, Hernandez came to the market. So, Cha Myung-seok left the country in a hurry and signed a contract. Everything was done in a hurry.”
Coach Yeom said, “I’ve only been with Kelly for a year and a half, but I’m the best foreign player I’ve seen when I put everything together, including personality, thoughts on baseball, dedication to the team, and relationships with my teammates.”
Kelly has recorded the largest number of wins (73 wins, 40 wins by Henry Sosa) among foreigners in the history of the Korean pro baseball team. He has the largest number of wins among all LG Korean players after Kim Yong-soo (126 wins), Jeong Sam-heum (106 wins), and Kim Tae-won (85 wins). He is tied for fourth (Van Hekken) with the largest number of wins among foreign pitchers in the history of the KBO league after Nippert (102 wins), Rios (90 wins), and Sosa (77 wins). Since May 10, 2020, he has pitched in more than five innings in 75 consecutive games, the largest number in the KBO league history. Notably, he has been strong with four wins, one loss and an earned run average of 2.08 in eight post-season games. He is the only player who has become a winning pitcher in both the wild card game, the semi-playoff (semi-PO), and the Korean series. In the fifth game of the Korean Series against KT Wiz last year, he had a starting win, contributing greatly to LG’s “one of the championships” in 29 years.
He also gave up maternity leave when his wife gave birth to their second son in the U.S. in 2021. He wanted to take the mound at the end of September when competition was raging. His colleagues at LG for the past six years did their best to honor Ace. Oh Ji-hwan, Park Hae-min, and Hong Chang-ki were all teary-eyed at the farewell event on Tuesday. Captain Kim bowed 90 degrees to Kelly.
“The club worked hard to prepare for the farewell event for two days after the replacement decision,” manager Yeom Kyung-yeop said. “The club and the players were treated with utmost respect,” adding, “A lot of things happened in such a short period of time. I thought about how I could let Kelly go well.”