The rival is still steady, but 1m94 hitting machine → batting average in the 10% range...There's a hole in the side of the clean-up.

Apr 02, 2025

The rival is still steady, but 1m94 hitting machine → batting average in the 10% range...There's a hole in the side of the clean-up.
KBO League SSG and Lotte match held at SSG Landers Field in Incheon on the 27th. Reyes, who is struck out by SSG Park Jong-hoon with one out and runners on first and third in the first inning, steps down. Incheon = Song Jeong-heon Reporter's songs@sportschosun.com/2025.03.27/



The rival is still steady, but 1m94 hitting machine → batting average in the 10% range...There's a hole in the side of the clean-up.
Lotte-Kium match held at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on the 17th. Reyes is celebrated after hitting an RBI single in the top of the first inning with two outs and runners on second base. Gocheok = Reporter Jung Jae-geun cjg@sportschosun.com /2025.3.17/
The rival is still steady, but 1m94 hitting machine → batting average in the 10% range...There's a hole in the side of the clean-up.
The KBO League exhibition game between Lotte and Hanwha at Sajik Stadium in Busan on the 13th. Lotte Reyes batting. Busan = Song Jeong-heon Reporter's songs@sportschosun.com/2025.03.13/
Apart from the last-minute ranking fight last season, there was a rivalry that became a hot topic.

SSG Landers Eredia and Lotte Giants Reyes. There is something in common as a mid- to long-distance foreign hitter.

The two players shared the title of batting average (360-352) and most hits (195-202). In addition, similar performances were achieved in various fields, including on-base percentage (399-394), scoring (82-88), and RBIs (118-111).




As a result, they competed fiercely on the Golden Glove stage as well. Samsung Lions Koo Ja-wook and KT Wiz Rojas had already reserved two seats. The overall performance was slightly superior to Herredia, but the impact of a single season record of 202 hits was significant. The Golden Glove was Reyes' charge.

This season, neither player has started as well as last year.

The rival is still steady, but 1m94 hitting machine → batting average in the 10% range...There's a hole in the side of the clean-up.
KBO League SSG and Lotte match held at SSG Landers Field in Incheon on the 25th. Hitting SSG Eredia. Incheon = Song Jeong-heon Reporter's songs@sportschosun.com/2025.03.25/
Still, Herredia is unfortunately keeping a .300 batting average. The impact of shooting an equalizer in the bottom of the ninth inning in the face-off between the two teams was also great.




Reyes' situation, on the other hand, is serious. The batting average has fallen to 194, and the OPS (on-base plus slugging) is only 0.432. Antage, who hit 40 doubles alone and had 15 home runs and 111 RBIs, is suffering from a severe slump of 3 RBIs and 6 hits in 31 at-bats (double 1).

Reyes' batting average in scoring position (395) last year was similar to that of the season. However, since the contact is so good and he is the type to hit rather than walk, head coach Kim Tae-hyung appointed Reyes as the fourth batter. This is because the value of a player who can record a hit rather than a walk in the scoring position is so special.

Since he is not a home run hitter, his OPS for the season was 0.904, which was not very satisfactory. It is also true that Lotte, which had 18 Son Ho-young, the No. 1 player in the home run team, was desperate for a player to hit more home runs. As Reyes is not a good defender, there is also a team situation in which Yoon Dong-hee should be appointed as a right fielder rather than a center fielder.




Still, it was not easy to turn a blind eye to the symbolism of the 202 hit record. In the end, Lotte chose to renew the contract with Reyes. Son Ho-young, Na Seung-yeop, Yoon Dong-hee, and Ko Seung-min decided to trust the possibility of increasing their slugging power.

The rival is still steady, but 1m94 hitting machine → batting average in the 10% range...There's a hole in the side of the clean-up.
KBO League SSG and Lotte match held at SSG Landers Field in Incheon on the 27th. Lotte Reyes, who hit an RBI sacrifice fly against SSG Park Jong-hoon in the third inning with one out and runners on the second and third bases. Incheon = Song Jeong-heon Reporter's songs@sportschosun.com/2025.03.27/
First of all, the beginning of the season is not easy. Reyes is always the attractive point of a single smile, but it is not easy to smile these days.

Reyes' poor performance resulted in a big hole in the corner of Lotte's clean-up. This year, Lotte is sluggish enough to rank 9th out of 10 teams with a team batting average (20.9 percent) and team OPS (0.554), but it seems to be suffering from a scoring drought as it missed even a few chances in the clean-up.

Reyes' renewal would have been more consistent than expected in manager Kim Tae-hyung's plan for this season. Reyes' revival is essential for Lotte to rebound.



This article was translated by Naver AI translator.