In the last season of manager Lee Seung-yeop's contract, Doosan Bears' early season plans became tangled.

The KBO revealed the entries of 280 players from 10 teams for the opening game on the afternoon of the 21st. Among the entries that included 8 rookie players, an anomaly was found in Doosan Bears' opening roster. The homegrown ace Kwak Bin (26) and key reliever Hong Geon-hee (33) were not included in the opening roster.

Doosan announced that the two players failed to make the opening roster due to injuries. Kwak Bin completed his final check before the regular season on the 19th against Goyang in the Futures League, pitching 5 innings with 1 hit, 3 walks, and 6 strikeouts for no runs. However, he complained of pain in his left side after the game, and diagnostic tests revealed damage to the left internal oblique.

Hong Geon-hee's condition is more serious. On the 16th, he experienced pain in his right elbow during pitching training and was diagnosed with damage to the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. Since this area directly affects pitching, his injury may result in a lengthy absence. Doosan noted, "Both players are expected to undergo reevaluation in early April."

This is manager Lee Seung-yeop's third season. Additionally, he has sharpened his focus to achieve better results while properly assessing the growth of young players. The players who are supposed to be at the center of this, Kwak Bin and Hong Geon-hee, will not be participating early in the season.

In particular, Doosan has struggled in recent seasons due to injuries to foreign players. Therefore, they prepared thoroughly for this season by properly recruiting foreign players. They signed Kohar Bin, who has played 134 major league games (92 starts) with 28 wins and throws at over 150 km/h. Due to issues with medical tests for Thomas Hatch, they also signed Zach Log, who is a pitcher throwing a sweeper and is more than capable of taking on the role of a number two starter. Both foreign pitchers confirmed they were smoothly settling into the Korean stage during the exhibition game period.

Additionally, outfielder Kim Min-seok, who joined through a 3-2 trade with Lotte last year, has been making significant contributions and has been appointed as the leadoff hitter, while they plan to use 'Jamsil power hitter' Kim Jae-hwan as a strong number two hitter.

This year marks the third season for manager Lee Seung-yeop. It is also the last season of his contract. Although they reached the postseason for two consecutive years, they barely made it in 2023, finishing 5th and losing in the wild card playoff to NC, and last year they advanced to the postseason in 4th but were upset by the 5th place team in the history of wild card playoffs, ending the season humiliatingly.

Doosan's owner Park Jeong-won visited the spring training site in Miyazaki, Japan, this year and urged manager Lee Seung-yeop and the team to strive for excellence, saying, "We are not playing to finish 4th or 5th. I hope you will repay the fans with passionate and best efforts by playing Doosan Bears-style baseball."

Manager Lee Seung-yeop summarized his resolve for the last season of his contract as "serving the country in white." He stated, "I have no personal resolutions this year. I just want our Doosan Bears to regain their former glory by working together with the players. I naturally think every year that we have to achieve better results and will strive to win even once more."

He added, "My re-signing has nothing to do with this. I do not think about re-signing even a bit. I just hope that our Doosan Bears become a team that receives much applause and support this year."

However, right after the opening, key players faced injury troubles, causing issues to arise from the start of manager Lee Seung-yeop's last season.

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