The Samsung Lions reacquired veteran infielder Park Gye-beom in a 1-for-1 trade with the Doosan Bears on the 6th.
Park, who originally joined Samsung as the 17th overall pick in the second round of the 2014 draft, moved to Doosan as compensation for free agent Oh Jae-il ahead of the 2021 season. Samsung gave up promising outfielder Ryu Seung-min to bring him back.
The reason was clear: to add experience and stability to a young infield, with a long-term eye on this year’s Asian Games in autumn.
The 20th Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games are scheduled for late September, right when the regular season’s final standings battles are heating up.
Which players are called up to the national team could shift the balance. On Samsung, infielders Lee Jae-hyun and Kim Young-woong are hoping to make the squad. But both young infielders started the season in a synchronized slump, and then injuries piled up.
Returning to the lineup on the 12th after 20 days out due to injury, Lee Jae-hyun sparked hope. He crushed a go-ahead homer off Ham Deok-ju in the ninth inning for his first home run of the season, finishing 2-for-3 and showing he’s ready.
Kim Young-woong, originally expected to return about two days earlier than Lee, hit an unexpected snag.
While playing in a Futures League game on the 6th ahead of his first-team return, he suffered a hamstring re-injury near the same area he had been rehabbing. Samsung’s medical staff diagnosed it as a Grade 1 strain of the left semitendinosus, with plans to reassess via MRI in three weeks.
Three weeks means late May. Given that it’s the same problematic area and hamstrings are prone to recurrence, his return is likely no earlier than mid-June—nearly halfway through the season. That leaves little time to prove his fitness and sharpness.
Meanwhile, Jeon Byung-woo, who has been filling in for Kim, found his stride again after a slow start earlier this month. On the 12th against LG, he launched a go-ahead grand slam in the eighth inning.
As his teammate Lee celebrated a home run on comeback day and Jeon delivered the slam, Kim Young-woong can only watch and wait—a frustrating stretch for the young slugger.