Early Return to KIA due to Urgent Surgery...He's a promising fastball player that the coach kept an eye on.

Nov 07, 2025

Early Return to KIA due to Urgent Surgery...He's a promising fastball player that the coach kept an eye on.
KIA Tigers Kim Se-il. Photo courtesy = KIA Tigers



[Okinawa (Japan) = Reporter Kim Min-kyung of Sports Chosun] "I returned home early because I heard that I needed urgent surgery."

Three days after the KIA Tigers held their closing camp in Okinawa, Japan, there were early returnees. Kim Se-il, a promising left-hander fastball player, hurriedly returned to Korea on the 6th due to acute appendicitis.

Kim Se-il canceled his bullpen pitching scheduled for the 6th and headed to a local hospital in Okinawa. I thought it was a cold body ache, but I heard that I needed urgent surgery for acute appendicitis, so I urgently got a plane ticket that evening and returned home.




KIA manager Lee Bum-ho was one of the prospects he watched in this closing camp, which made him even more sad. I wanted to check the possibility of using it in the first team next season, but it ended without time to look at it.

Kim Se-il is a fastball pitcher who graduated from Yongma High School and joined KIA as the 32nd overall in the fourth round in 2023. He is tall at 1m88 and has a speed of more than 150km, and was expected to have a strong ball. However, there was a homework to catch the ball control.

Early Return to KIA due to Urgent Surgery...He's a promising fastball player that the coach kept an eye on.
KIA Tigers Kim Se-il. Photo courtesy = KIA Tigers
KIA sent Kim Se-il, who returned from military service, to the United States to study in June. It dispatched three promising players, Kim Se-il, Kim Jung-yeop, and Yang Soo-ho, to the Tread Athletics in Charlotte, North Carolina to help them improve their skills. Tread Athletics is a professional baseball training center that is also popular with Major League Baseball players in the United States.




I didn't see the effect of studying abroad right away. Kim Se-il had only 13 games, nine ⅔ innings and a 16.76 ERA in the second division this year. He still hasn't solved the ball control problem enough to give up 18 walks while striking out 15. Therefore, this final camp was important, but the player himself was most disappointed because he returned home early due to unexpected health problems.

Early Return to KIA due to Urgent Surgery...He's a promising fastball player that the coach kept an eye on.
KIA Tigers Kim Se-il. Photo courtesy = KIA Tigers







This article was translated by Naver AI translator.