A new face joins the exhausted bullpen of the pro baseball LG Twins. Left-hander Lee Sang-young and right-hander Lee Jong-jun are coming up to the first team.
Youm Kyoung-youb, LG manager, mentioned a new pitcher call-up plan while talking about bullpen management before the game against the KT Wiz at Suwon KT Wiz Park on the 30th. Youm said, "Sang-young and Jong-jun will be called up on the 1st." They plan to use them in long relief and as part of the chase group out of the bullpen.
Lee Sang-young and Lee Jong-jun are currently both development players. Their status will change to regular players on May 1, when they can be officially registered as players, and the team plans to add them to the first-team roster.
Lee Sang-young was last on the first-team roster on Aug. 2, 2024. He returns to the first team after 636 days. Lee Sang-young, who joined LG as the fifth overall pick in the second round of the 2019 rookie draft, was the wins leader in the Futures League in 2023 with 22 appearances, a 10-3 record and a 3.31 earned run average while serving with the military team Sangmu.
After completing military service and returning to LG, Lee Sang-young was expected to perform as a starter or reliever but disappointed. He was given a starting opportunity immediately upon his return in June 2023 but went 0-1 with a 3.27 ERA in six games (11 innings) and was sent down to the second team. In 2024 he made eight appearances with a 0-1 record, one hold and a 3.31 ERA, and in mid-September of that year he was involved in a drunk-driving incident. The Korea Baseball Organization suspended Lee Sang-young for one year in December 2024.
Lee Sang-young sat out the 2025 season due to a suspension and returned this year as a development player. He made six starts in the Futures League, going 1-1 with a 3.77 ERA. On April 23 he became the winning pitcher against the Hanwha Eagles, allowing three runs on six hits and two walks with five strikeouts in five innings. It was his first win in the Futures League in 589 days.
Lee Jong-jun moved from NC to LG in the secondary draft in November 2023. In 2024 he appeared in 27 games (26 innings) with a 1-2 record, one hold and a 4.15 ERA. In August he made eight appearances, throwing nine scoreless innings with a 0.00 ERA and produced a surprising performance. However, ahead of the 2025 season he underwent surgery to remove bone fragments from his elbow and returned that August. He posted two scoreless appearances totaling 1 2/3 innings at the first-team level.
After last season he was moved to development player status, and this year in the Futures League he has made six starts, going 1-2 with an 8.14 ERA.
Youm said, "Then (Kim) Yoon-sik will pitch in the second team and come up, and (Son) Joo-young will come up when he pitches in the second team. Now they will return one by one. (Bae) Jae-joon will also come up when he pitches in the second team," referring to the return of players in rehabilitation.
Early May will be about hanging on, and by mid-May the foreign pitcher Yonny Chirinos, who is recovering from elbow pain, will return, so we expect the team to have a stable lineup.
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