In a situation where the infield corps was decimated, he endured all the hellish training and looked like the starting third baseman. But in the end he must effectively skip the first half of this year due to injury. Professional baseball Lotte Giants' Park Chan-hyung is going under the knife.
The Lotte club announced on the 24th news of infielder Park Chan-hyung's surgery. The club said, "Park Chan-hyung suffered a right palm injury during training immediately after spring camp. As a result of examination, a stress fracture of the palmar hamate bone was confirmed," and "He is scheduled to undergo surgery at Cheongdam Rion Orthopedic Clinic on March 25. Recovery is expected to take 3 months," the club said.
He was first imprinted on baseball fans through a 2024 baseball variety show and later entered the pros after playing in independent leagues and signing a developmental player contract with the Lotte Giants. And he emerged as Lotte's surprise star in the latter half of last year.
Park Chan-hyung was first registered on the first team in mid-June last year and made his debut on June 18 as a pinch runner in the Sajik game against Hanwha. The next day, on the 19th, he recorded his first hit in the Sajik game against Hanwha. After that, Park Chan-hyung gradually expanded his footing on the first team based on his contact ability. Moving between second and third base, he became a source of vitality for the infield.
In his first-team debut season last year he played 48 games with a .341 batting average (129 at-bats, 44 hits), 3 home runs, 19 RBIs, 21 runs and an OPS of .923. Without properly going through spring camp, he immediately showed his talent on the first-team stage and strongly emerged as one of the first-team infield options.
From last year's Miyazaki finishing camp through this year's spring camp, Park Chan-hyung endured and overcame all the hellish training without missing any. Park Chan-hyung sweated more than anyone else.
Due to external factors, he was even involuntarily mentioned as a candidate for the starting third baseman. After a gambling scandal broke out in Tainan, Taiwan, starting infielders Go Seung-min and Na Seung-yeop received suspension penalties. With questions about Han Dong-hee's third-base defense and factors such as Son Ho-young's conversion to the outfield, it was expected that Park Chan-hyung could be given more opportunities.
During spring camp, manager Kim Tae-hyoung also explained Park Chan-hyung's development, saying, "His defensive movements have become more concise. The time to pull the ball from the glove has shortened."
But after completing spring camp, Park Chan-hyung faced the misfortune of injury before the exhibition games. He had one plate appearance in the April 12 game against KT, which was his entire exhibition-game record. From that time it became known that Park Chan-hyung had palm pain, and he ultimately went under the knife to remove the source of the pain.
Since spring camp, players in Lotte's infield have been disappearing one by one. Go Seung-min, Na Seung-yeop and Kim Se-min received 30-game suspension penalties over the gambling scandal. Han Dong-hee, who bombarded the Futures League while serving in the military team, also left after playing only one exhibition game because of an internal oblique muscle injury. Han Dong-hee's return is not expected to become visible until mid-April.
With the infield corps decimated, Park Chan-hyung also dropped out due to injury. Park Chan-hyung's personal success story has been temporarily halted, and despite Lotte finishing first in the exhibition games, the depth of the infield became a concern ahead of the season opener.
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