Oh no! What a bad ending! Shim Jun-seok from Deoksu High School, who was considered the most promising player in Korean baseball, was released three years after entering the league. career-ending crisis
Aug 06, 2025
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In January 2023, three years ago, Shim Joon-seok, a former Deoksu High School graduate who was highly regarded as the "biggest high school pitch" and "monster prospect" at the time, said in an interview with a domestic broadcaster ahead of the joining ceremony of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the U.S. Major League Baseball.
However, Shim Jun-seok's 'three-year promise' led to a completely different direction. Rather than entering the major leagues in just three years, we are in a situation where our U.S. career will be over at all. Shim Joon-seok received a surprise release notice from his current team, the Miami Marlins Rookie League.
It's the worst bad ending. This is because the young player's career, which was evaluated as a 'expected player to lead Korean baseball', has not even blossomed properly and is on the verge of ending in vain. Even the team that made the final decision to release was the Rookie League FCL Marlins, who are at the lower level in the minor leagues, not in the major leagues.
This means only one thing. This means that Shim Jun-seok's current skills are not even close to the level of a minor league rookie. And it should be seen that there is virtually no team in the United States that will take a player who has received this evaluation. It is the biggest crisis of Shim Jun-seok's career.
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Shim Jun-seok threw a fastball of up to 160km during his time at Deoksu High School and was evaluated as a "monster prospect". There was also an evaluation that it was the second Park Chan-ho. Standing 1m93 and weighing 97.5kg, 'de-Asian class size' was enough to give expectations that it could be competitive on the U.S. stage.
In the end, Shim Joon-seok, who was expected to be the No. 1 player in the 2023 KBO Rookie Draft, declared his entry into the U.S. in 2022 when he was a third grader at Deoksu High School. It was the result of the offensive of several Major League scouts from early 2022. Coach Jung Yoon-jin, who taught Shim Joon-seok at Deoksu High School at the time, said, `There is a high risk of failure if we go to the U.S. now. It's never too late to succeed and go in Korea."I tried to dissuade Shim Joon-seok and his father several times, but to no avail.
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But the wall of reality was too high. In the 2023 season, he appeared in only four games in the rookie league under Pittsburgh and pitched only eight innings. While allowing three hits (one homer) and striking out 13, he gave up three walks with a 3.38 ERA. The hit rate was 0.111 and the WHIP was 0.75.
It doesn't look bad in figures. However, it should be noted that it is only four games played. Since then, injuries have continued, and he has not been able to continue pitching properly. Shim Jun-seok, who finished 2023 as it is, did not play at all in 2024. This is because my ankles, thoracic muscles, and shoulders continued to hurt.
Shim Jun-seok, who had remained on the injured list (IL), was eventually traded to the Miami Marlins on July 31, 2024. Pittsburgh, which brought Shim Joon-seok to the United States promising a rosy future, gave up after a year and a half.
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Above all, the problem was the difficulty of control that could not be caught. He recorded as many as 31 pitches in 13 ⅓ innings. He had 23 walks and eight hit balls. He also struck out 16 times, but four outs with more than two outs per inning were the worst indicator. The Miami club finally declared 'Give up' after half a season.
Some point out that Shim Jun-seok's poor control and frequent injuries are due to his excessive throwing in high school. However, this is different from the fact.
Shim Jun-seok first began to stand out in 2020 when he was a freshman in high school. At that time, he couldn't even register as a player at the beginning of the season because he was building his body, but it wasn't until July that he started playing as a player. In the end, he pitched 19 innings in eight official games. In 2021, he played 14 ⅓ innings in five games, and in 2022, when he was a senior at Deoksu High School, all he pitched was 20 ⅔ innings in 12 games.
Shim Joon-seok himself said in a broadcast interview that "I didn't have any injuries in the third grade. However, I kept sweeping my toes on the ground during the game, so there were times when I couldn't go out for a game because it hurt a little bit." It should be seen that the injuries and sluggishness in the United States are not related to high school days.
In the end, it is inferred that there was a strain on the body in the process of adapting alone in an unfamiliar environment. It is unclear how Shim Joon-seok will continue his baseball career in the future. Re-challenge on the American stage is practically almost impossible. The only remaining option is to return to Korea and solve the military service problem first and then try again in the KBO League.
Since he is still 21 years old, he can start his professional career even before the age of 25 if he knocks on the door of KBO after rushing to solve the military service problem. However, we have to hurry. The longer the time, the more early the end of the career remains.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
