The Lotte Giants' bullpen pitcher Koo Seung-min recorded scoreless outings in two consecutive games in the Futures League. Koo, who will be the last card in Lotte's bullpen, is gradually approaching his return to the first team.
On the 27th, Koo Seung-min took the mound as a closer against the NC Dinos in the 2025 Futures League at Changwon NC Park, pitching 1⅓ innings without a hit, with 2 walks and 3 strikeouts, recording a save.
Koo Seung-min came to the mound in the bottom of the eighth inning with 2 outs and no runners on, leading 3-2, following Lee Young-jae. He allowed the first batter, Han Jae-hwan, to get on base after hitting him on the left arm with the first pitch. The slider slipped out of his hand. He struck out Ahn In-san swinging with a high fastball at 143 km/h to end the inning.
In the ninth inning, Koo Seung-min struck out lead-off hitter Jo Hyo-won swinging with a forkball (131 km/h). Park In-woo recorded the second out with a foul fly to the third baseman. He walked pinch hitter Park Joo-chan but struck out pinch hitter Kim Beom-jun swinging with a forkball (132 km/h) to end the game.
Koo Seung-min has struggled this season in the first team, appearing in 5 games with 1 loss and 1 hold, holding an earned run average of 14.73. He allowed runs in 3 out of 5 appearances.
On March 23, he made his first appearance against LG, giving up 3 hits, 1 home run, 1 walk, and 4 earned runs over ⅔ innings. After one game, he was sent down to the second team and returned to the first team at the end of April. After returning, he made 4 appearances, pitching 3 innings and allowing 3 earned runs (2 earned) with an ERA of 6.00, remaining unstable.
On the 8th, he was sent down to the second team for the second time. While in the second team, Koo Seung-min recorded 1 inning, allowing 2 hits, 1 walk, and 1 run in a game against KT Wiz on the 14th.
After resting for over a week, he has recently been pitching in second team games every other day. On the 23rd, he pitched 1⅓ innings (37 pitches), allowing 2 hits, recording 2 strikeouts, and 3 earned runs (none of which were earned) against the Kia Tigers due to successive defensive errors.
On the 25th, he achieved an outing of 1 inning with no hits, no walks, and no earned runs against Kia's second team. On the 27th against NC, he pitched multiple innings and recorded a save. It would be nice if his fastball speed increases to the mid-140 km/h range.
Last year, Koo Seung-min appeared in 66 games, recording 5 wins, 3 losses, 13 holds, and an earned run average of 4.84. After the season, he became a free agent and signed a contract with Lotte for a duration of 2+2 years worth a maximum of 2.1 billion won (300 million won as a signing bonus, 1.2 billion won in total salary, and 600 million won in total aggregates). However, his performance at the start of the season in the first year of the contract has been poor.
The Lotte bullpen features Jeong Cheol-won, who was acquired through a trade with Doosan last November, veteran Kim Sang-su, and left-handers Jeong Hyeon-su and Song Jae-young, with closer Kim Won-jung leading the way. Recently, fireballer Choi Jun-Yong has joined the winning team in good health. Koo Seung-min remains as the last option.
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