Will the head coach who worked together with ‘Awesome Kim’ Kim Ha-seong (28, San Diego Padres) join ‘genius hitter’ Lee Jeong-hoo (25, Kiwoom Heroes) next year?
The transfer rumors of manager Bob Melvin, who led the San Diego Padres this year, are heating up. The official Major League Baseball website (MLB.com) announced on the 23rd (hereinafter Korean time), “Coach Melvin has received permission from San Diego to conduct a managerial interview with San Francisco.”
San Francisco, which ranked 4th in the National League West Division with 79 wins and 83 losses this season, is in need of appointing a new coach following the resignation of coach Gabe Kepler. Coach Melvin is being considered as a candidate for San Francisco’s new coach.
Coach Melvin is a veteran coach who has been in charge for 20 years this year and has a total of 1,517 wins and 1,425 losses (a winning percentage of .516).
Coach Melvin, who started his career as a manager by taking charge of the Seattle Mariners from 2003 to 2004, led the Arizona Diamondbacks from 2005 to 2009 and the Oakland Athletics from 2011 to 2021, and has been serving as manager in San Diego since last year. He won the National League Manager of the Year Award in 2007 and the American League Manager of the Year Award in 2012 and 2018.
Coach Melvin, who led San Diego to the postseason stage last year, fell short of expectations this year, finishing in third place in the National League West Division with 82 wins and 80 losses. Coach Melvin still has one year left on his contract with San Diego. Will Coach Melvin leave San Diego and make a new start in San Francisco?
On the 24th, ‘The Athletic’, an American sports media outlet, emphasized that Coach Melvin is a good fit for San Francisco under the topic, “Why should San Francisco appoint Coach Melvin?”
One of the reasons put forward by ‘The Athletic’ is “because we need a coach who can attract free agent players.”
San Francisco is showing great interest in Yoshinobu Yamamoto, ace of the Orix Buffaloes of the Japanese professional baseball team, who is considered one of the biggest pitchers in the upcoming free agent market, and Jeong-hoo Lee of the Kiwoom Heroes, the best hitter in the KBO League.
It is predicted that if San Francisco appoints coach Melvin as the new head coach, the probability of recruiting them will increase. In the meantime, Coach Melvin has formed a bond with major leaguers from Asian countries such as Korea and Japan.
“Coach Melvin is a coach with a high reputation among Japanese and Korean players, starting with Ichiro Suzuki in 2003,” said The Athletic. “San Francisco can be expected to aggressively recruit Orix Buffaloes’ 25-year-old ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto.” He predicted, “We will launch an onslaught against Kiwoom Heroes center fielder Lee Jeong-hoo, who is considered the best player in the KBO league.”
Next, ‘The Athletic’ said, “It is worth noting that Coach Melvin got along well with Yu Darvish. Darvish has the same agent as Yamamoto and is known as an influential advisor to Japanese free agent star players.” He developed a strong rapport with Kim Ha-seong, who was Jeong-hoo Lee’s Kiwoom colleague and close friend. Coach Melvin was able to rank 8th among National League players in win-against-replacement ratio (bWAR) of 5.8 this season based on Baseball Reference. “It’s because it gave me the opportunity to participate in the game,” he emphasized.
Lee Jeong-hoo, who announced his intention to advance to the major league early on, naturally has no choice but to prefer a team where he can occupy a starting spot. If San Francisco recruits coach Melvin, Lee Jeong-hoo will be able to ask Kim Ha-seong for advice on coach Melvin. From Kim Ha-seong’s perspective, there is no way he would have any bad feelings towards coach Melvin, who has consistently appointed him as a starter.굿모닝토토 주소
San Francisco is a team that is actively interested in Lee Jung-hoo. In particular, San Francisco general manager Pete Putilla is showing such deep interest that he was captured personally visiting Gocheok Sky Dome and watching Jeong-hoo Lee’s at-bat.
Lee Jeong-hoo, who won the regular season MVP last year with a batting average of .349, 23 home runs, and 113 RBIs, played only 86 games this year due to an ankle injury, but showed his rust-free batting skills with a batting average of .318, 6 home runs, and 45 RBIs.