“The skills of winning the World Series have also risen.” (Approximately 900 million won) and agreed to a contract for the 2023 season.” What stood out as much as Yokishi’s re-contract was the re-entry of Russell.
Russell began his professional career after being selected by the Oakland Athletics with the 11th overall pick in the first round of the 2012 draft. As you can see from his nomination order, Russell, who was a ‘top prospect’, succeeded in getting a starting spot at the same time as he stepped on the major league stage with the Chicago Cubs in 2015.
Russell’s ‘career high’ season was in 2016. Russell recorded 125 hits, 21 homers, 95 RBIs, a batting average of 0.238 OPS and 0.738 in 151 games, and was selected as an All-Star for the first time in his career. And he contributed greatly to the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series (WS) for the first time in 108 years. However, Russell’s major league career, which was on a winning streak, was completely cut off after the 2019 season.
It was ‘domestic violence’ that caught Russell’s ankle. Russell was suspended for 40 games for domestic violence in 2018, after which his performance began to decline. In particular, his ability to produce long hits has noticeably declined. Afterwards, Russell, who was looking for a destination, stepped on the KBO League stage as a substitute foreign player for Taylor Motor in the 2020 season.
Maybe it was because they had high expectations for Russell, who was a major league all-star and led them to the World Series championship. Russell appeared in 65 games for Kiwoom, recording only 62 hits, 2 homers, and 31 RBIs with a batting average of 0.254. After the season, he parted ways with Kiwoom. It is not easy to return to the major leagues, but Russell did not let go of baseball.
Russell moved to the Mexican league and continued his career, joined Acereros de Monclova and recorded 66 games, 8 home runs, 0.319 OPS, 0.900 in the 2021 season, and 24 home runs, 0.348 OPS, 1.120 in 80 games in the 2022 season. He swung a bat with a fire bat and got back together with Kiwoom, who had broken up with Yasiel Puig.
On the 12th, Koh Hyung-wook, general manager of Kiwoom Kiwoom, said, “I talked to Russell and he said he wanted to play in Korea.” If he gets along with young players like Lee Jung-hoo and Kim Hye-seong and melts into the team well, it will be a big help to the direction we thought of,” he revealed the background of the recruitment.
General manager Ko Hyeong-wook paid attention to the fact that, unlike the KBO league, he played a huge role in the Mexican league for two consecutive seasons. He pointed out, “Russell has improved his skills when he won the World Series. He recorded 24 homers and a batting average of 0.348 in 80 games. Puig did well in Korea, but Russell is better than when Puig was in Mexico.” . 안전놀이터
Finally, general manager Ko Hyeong-wook said, “There are difficulties in selecting foreign players. Due to Corona 19, there are not many players in the United States. In the case of good players with good results, Japan often takes them in first,” but added, “I did my best. Russell I think that if younger players watch and learn from players with a lot of experience, they will grow faster.”