Adonis Medina demoted to the second team. The KIA Tigers are considering a foreign pitching change.
Medina started the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League game against the Hanwha Eagles at Hanwha Life Eagles Park in Daejeon, South Korea, on April 21 and allowed three runs (three earned) in two innings, striking out two and walking three.
Medina got through the first and second innings without incident, but things went south in the bottom of the third. After giving up a leadoff single to Jang Jin-hyuk, 토토사이트 the No. 7 hitter, he gave up walks to Lee Do-yoon and Jung Eun-won. Lee then walked and scored on a wild pitch. In the end, KIA opted to drop Medina and bring up Kim Yoo-shin.
Medina was removed from the first team roster ahead of the 22nd game against Hanwha. “It’s a different situation than Shawn Anderson,” said KIA manager Kim Jong-kook. Anderson was sent down to the second team as an adjustment, but to be honest, I think Medina has shown the limits of his skills,” said Kim Jong-guk, KIA’s head coach.
“Medina will be in and out of the starting rotation in the Futures League. But we’ve given him a lot of opportunities. I don’t think it’s going to be easy to keep him in the first team anymore. I think he’s lost a lot of confidence. We are considering replacing him.”
Manager Kim Jong-kook commented on the previous day’s game, saying, “The reason I made the change in the third inning was that I didn’t think I could keep Medina in. “Honestly, Yoo Shin-yi (Kim) did a good job of blocking him. If I had left Medina in, the game could have gone longer.”
Medina went 1-3 with a 5.87 ERA in four games in April with 15 runs (15 earned) in 23 innings and a 5.75 ERA in four games in May with 16 runs (13 earned) in 20⅓ innings. Not exactly what you’d expect from a foreign pitcher.
In June, however, Medina was even worse. In four games, he gave up 11 runs (11 earned) in 14⅔ innings for a 6.75 ERA. Most notably, he walked 13 batters while striking out just four. His WHIP (walks allowed per inning) also stood at 1.91. Ultimately, he was unable to rebound and will likely be parting ways with KIA.
The team has yet to decide on a replacement for Medina. Manager Kim Jong-kook said, “We’ll have to wait and see if we’re going to bring him up from the second team or go to bullpen day. We’ll have to discuss it with the pitching coach.”
Meanwhile, KIA called up Kim Seung-hyun to replace Medina.