More painful investment failure because it was believed to be 4.5 billion in the air...KT Rojas' surprise replacement, Stephenson recruited

Aug 02, 2025

More painful investment failure because it was believed to be 4.5 billion in the air...KT Rojas' surprise replacement, Stephenson recruited
KT Wiz Mel Rojas Jr. was eventually notified of the release. Yonhap News



More painful investment failure because it was believed to be 4.5 billion in the air...KT Rojas' surprise replacement, Stephenson recruited
The game between Lotte and KT at Sajik Stadium in Busan on the 29th. KT starter Cuevas, who will be substituted with one out and runners on first and second bases in the bottom of the fifth inning. Busan = Song Jeong-heon Reporter's songs@sportschosun.com/2025.06.29/
KT Wiz also confirmed his separation from Mel Rojas Jr., following William Cuevas, a foreign player he believed in.

On the 2nd, KT hired Andrew Stevenson as a hitter to replace Rohas for an annual salary of $200,000 (about 200 million won)' announced.

KT announced the recruitment of Patrick Murphy on the 11th, announcing its separation from foreign pitcher Cuevas. Patrick spent 277,000 dollars a year (about 380 million won).




KT manager Lee Kang-chul could not hide his regret over the poor performance of Cuevas and Rojas throughout the season. KT re-signed Cuevas for $1.5 million (about 2 billion won) and Rojas for $1.8 million (about 2.5 billion won) ahead of this season. In the end, the company lost 3.3 million dollars (about 4.5 billion won).

KT and Cuevas have been together for seven seasons and Rojas for six seasons. In the meantime, he has made outstanding performances in the KBO League, and the club has invested a lot of money as much as he believed, but he never imagined that both would fail. In the background of KT's long separation from the two players, there was also a feeling of 'just in case', but there was no reversal.

KT showed strong will to advance to the 5th round by replacing all two long-lived foreigners. As of the 2nd, KT is sixth with 50 wins, 3 draws and 49 losses in the season. This is due to the recent loss of four consecutive games. There is plenty of opportunity to make up for it. There is no game difference with the fifth-ranked KIA Tigers, and there is also a one-game difference with the fourth-ranked SSG Landers. It is definitely not a step to give up.




More painful investment failure because it was believed to be 4.5 billion in the air...KT Rojas' surprise replacement, Stephenson recruited
KT-LG match held at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on the 30th. Patrick took the mound as a starting pitcher for KT. Jamsil = Reporter Jung Jae-geun cjg@sportschosun.com /2025.7.30/
More painful investment failure because it was believed to be 4.5 billion in the air...KT Rojas' surprise replacement, Stephenson recruited
KT Wiz new foreign hitter Andrew Stevenson. Photo courtesy of KT Wiz
KT desperately needed to strengthen its batting. Rojas only hit 0.239 (79 hits in 331 at-bats) with 14 homers, 43 RBIs and an OPS of 0.759 in 95 games this year. It was an unimaginable slump for Rojas in the past. In addition, the hitting sense of the main hitters, such as Kang Baek-ho and Hwang Jae-kyun, who joined after a long-term absence due to injuries, was not good. A breakthrough was needed.

The new foreign hitter Stephenson was drafted in the second round by the Washington Nationals in 2015 and made his major league debut in 2017. He played in 273 major league games through the Washington and Minnesota Twins and recorded a batting average of 0.243, eight home runs, 50 RBIs and 55 points.

The minor league record is 0.289, 58 home runs, 328 RBIs, 469 runs, and 201 steals in 770 total games.




Last year, he played for Nippon-Ham Fighters in the Nippon-Ham Baseball (NPB) and experienced Asian baseball.

This season, he hit .295 with five home runs, 22 RBIs, 17 runs and 18 steals in 57 games for Triple-A Durham Bulls under the Tampa Bay Rays.

KT's general manager Na Do-hyun said, `Stevenson is a mid- to long-range hitter who can produce strong hits, and in defense, he has the strength of being able to play all positions in the outfield stably. I expect it to be of great help to the team in ball, water and state"I want to say thank you to Rojas for his role as a leader in the fielders up to now."

More painful investment failure because it was believed to be 4.5 billion in the air...KT Rojas' surprise replacement, Stephenson recruited
KT-LG match held at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on the 31st. KT manager Lee Kang-chul is watching the game. Jamsil = Reporter Jung Jae-geun cjg@sportschosun.com /2025.7.31/




This article was translated by Naver AI translator.