We were forced to rebuild and overhaul our roster. In the process, they had to grit their teeth and endure a period of pain. Everyone said it was a foggy future, but when the fog cleared, a bright future awaited the NC Dinos.
NC lost the fifth game of the playoffs against KT Wiz 2-3 at KT Wiz Park in Suwon, South Korea. This was the third straight loss for NC, which failed to advance to the Korean Series despite clinching the playoffs with two games to spare.
Returning to fall baseball after a three-year hiatus with a fourth-place finish in the regular season, NC raced to the second round of the playoffs in a frenzy. The team dominated the fall baseball scene with the appearance of a crazy player in every game. They went on a six-game winning streak in the postseason, including the wild-card decider against Doosan (Game 1), the semifinals against SSG (Game 3), and the playoffs against KT (Game 2). Starting with Game 4 of the 2020 Korean Series, the team has won nine straight postseason games. This tied the Hattae Tigers’ longest postseason winning streak from 1987 to 1988. It was a reign of fall baseball that rivaled the best dynasties in league history.
After winning the 2020 championship, the NC voluntarily overhauled its roster. The team tried to build a pitching staff centered on young guns while sending out pitchers who could still be considered healthy, such as Lim Chang-min (Kiwoom) and Kim Jin-sung (LG), who have been the core of the bullpen since the team’s inception and were the main players in the unified championship.
The pace of rebuilding and reorganization was also rapid in Yasujin. The reorganization of the outfield was more voluntary. There were variables in the free agency market. After the 2021 season, Na Sung-bum, who was likely to remain a franchise star in free agency, was lost to an aggressive bet (6 years, 15 billion won) by his hometown team, KIA. Despite losing their franchise star, they minimized the gap by signing Son As-seop (4 years, 6.4 billion won) and Park Geon-woo (6 years, 10 billion won), two of the best contact players in the league. 토토사이트
Then, after the 2022 season, the Exodus began. They had seven internal free agents. They had to be selective and focused, but eventually had to let go of three players. The first priority was to retain Anbang-manim Yang-ji, but he had to let go again after being actively courted by his hometown team Doosan. Yang returned to Doosan for 4+2 years and 15.2 billion won. Noh Jin-hyuk, a center fielder and long-hitting infielder, followed suit with a four-year, 5 billion won offer from Lotte. Won Jong-hyun, a free agent signing with Kiwoom for four years and 2.5 billion won, was not a priority in the negotiations, but the team still lost a championship closer. The move was an extension of the bullpen overhaul and rebuilding, but the hemorrhaging was not without consequences.
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