Jung Cheol-won of the Lotte Giants took the mound as relief pitcher in an exhibition game of the 2025 Shinhan Bank SOL Bank KBO League held at Sajik Stadium in Busan on Sunday, and allowed 14 pitches, one walk, two strikeouts and no runs during one inning. The maximum speed is 147 kilometers.

Jung Chul-won, who was nominated by the Doosan Bears as the 20th overall pick in the second round of the rookie draft in 2018, solved the military service problem before he even stepped on the first team stage and was called to the first team for the first time in 2022. In addition, he took the title of "Rookie King" with an excellent performance of 4 wins, 3 losses, 3 saves and an ERA of 3.10 in 58 games with fast balls over 150 kilometers and "main weapon" fork balls.먹튀검증

In particular, Jung joined the World Baseball Classic (WBC) team in 2023 based on his performance in the first season, and continued his good performance that year with 7 wins, 6 losses, 11 holds, 13 saves, and an ERA of 3.96 in 67 games. However, last year, Jung had a hard time. Although he started the season with Doosan's "finish," he was forced to go down to the second division even before his April schedule ended in a jagged manner, and suffered from not being able to play in the must-win group as well as finish.

In the end, Jung Cheol-won's position, who had the worst year with 2 wins, 1 loss, 6 saves and an ERA of 6.40 in 36 games, became very narrow, when Lotte and Doosan's interests, which were aiming to strengthen the bullpen, matched. Lotte, which was considering the arrangement of outfield traffic, decided to receive Jung Chul-won and infielder Jeon Min-jae in exchange for giving up Kim Min-seok, a former "one-rounder," as well as military-pil outfielder Choo Jae-hyun and pitcher Choi Woo-in.

Despite having its worst season last year, Lotte plans to use Chung as a must-winner. When asked about Chung ahead of his departure for Taiwan's Tainan Spring Camp in January, Kim said, "He will do well," adding, "He should be considered a must-winner. That's why I brought him here." Chung took the mound in his first official exhibition game on Sunday.

Taking the mound at the top of the eighth inning with the score tied 0-0, Jeong gave up a walk after a six-pitch match with leadoff hitter Park Jae-hyun, and got off to a somewhat shaky start. However, he lost no point. He took a breather by throwing a fork ball to Choi Won-joon on the fourth pitch, creating a foul tip strikeout, in a crisis with one out and runners on the second base, which was created by allowing the follow-up hitter Han Seung-taek to throw a sacrifice bunt.

Then, in the crisis of two outs and second base, Jung Cheol-won chose a 134-km folk ball as a winning shot against Yoon Do-hyun, leading to a swing and miss, and escaped the crisis with "KK." After escaping the crisis by taking the mound in a tight situation, Jung Cheol-won roared and performed his role perfectly in his debut match in the Lotte uniform at Sajik Stadium.

After the game, Jung Chul-won said, "It was the first mound I went up wearing a Lotte uniform in my resignation, so I was very nervous, but I think I threw well." Looking back on the pitch, he said, "I will continue to make efforts to reduce the number of leadoff batters' walks and work hard to win the team."

Last year, Lotte's bullpen earned run average (ERA) was only ranked ninth in the league. In particular, as the bullpen collapsed at the beginning of the season, Lotte struggled to manage the mound throughout the year, and eventually faced the "dark period" of failing to advance to the postseason for the seventh consecutive year. Therefore, Lotte is determined to receive an invitation to the fall festival somehow this year. Chung Cheol-won, who has to take the heavy responsibility of "must win," has heavy shoulders and high expectations.