Lotte, which seeks to return to the postseason in 2025, has sought to change its lineup of foreign players. It has renewed its contracts with Charlie Barnes (total of 1.5 million dollars), the ace player of the team for a long time, and Victor Reyes (total of 1.25 million dollars), who won the title of most hits in the league last year. On the other hand, Lotte did not renew its contract with Aaron Wilkerson (36) after much consideration.

Wilkerson, who had good results by joining Lotte as a substitute for foreign players in 2023, has successfully renewed his contract. Wilkerson, who was sluggish early in the 2024 season but found his pace after the middle of the season, finished 2024 with a 12-8 record and a 3.84 ERA in 32 games. Although he was much different from the 2023 ERA (2.26), Wilkerson's ability to play innings was not negligible. Wilkerson ate up 196 ⅔ innings in 32 games.먹튀검증

He recorded 18 quality starts (more than 6 innings and less than 3 earned runs) in 32 games, and even on days when there were many runs, he pitched five to six innings consistently to reduce the burden on the bullpen. This was quite an important value in the KBO League environment last year, when the team had a clear tendency to ride. With the overall score of the league increased and Lotte's offense improved, the quality start itself was likely to lead the team to victory, and considering the load of Lotte's bullpen, the ability to play innings itself was clearly important.

Nevertheless, Lotte found a new foreign pitcher without renewing his contract with Wilkerson. Considering that there were signs of deterioration in ball power last year, and that he will turn 36 this year, the team apparently made a bet that there is a high possibility that it will get worse rather than better. For Lotte, the new foreign pitcher should perform better than Wilkerson, but the difficulty level is quite high starting from the inning.

As a result, left-hander Tucker Davidson (29) who signed a contract worth a total of 950,000 U.S. dollars (guaranteed amount of 850,000 dollars and incentives of 100,000 dollars) is drawing keen attention. As there is no doubt about Barnes' performance itself, if Davidson shows any ball power beyond Wilkerson, he will surely form a strong one-two punch for foreigners. On the contrary, the more Wilkerson keeps thinking about his ability to play innings, the more problematic he will become for Lotte's starting lineup. With Lotte's mound not stable, Davidson is at the critical key. It is an adventure for Lotte.

There is something to look forward to. He is a "left-hander" who has a certain amount of ball power, solid ball and experience as a starter. This has been a successful route for foreign pitchers in the KBO League in recent years. Davidson, who made his Major League debut with Atlanta in 2020, joined the World Series roster in place of Charlie Morton, who was injured during the 2021 World Series, and also started Game 5. He is currently playing in the SSG uniform with Guillermo Herredia, who won the World Series.

He played in 56 games (17 starts) in five major league seasons, and played 98 out of 142 games in the minor league, so he has a lot of experience in starting. He also played 115 ⅔ innings in Triple-A in the minor league last year, and is expected to have no major problems adapting to the rotation of KBO league starters.

The key is whether he has more ball power than Wilkerson. In 2022, when Davison last started, the average speed of four-seam fastballs was about 93 miles (about 150 kilometers) per hour, which was good. However, in the past two years, the average speed of fastballs has fallen quite a lot to 91 miles (about 146.5 kilometers). He consciously raised his arm angle to maximize the advantage of high RBIs, and his hiding movement is good, so he is a type that can exert good power if he raises his fastball speed more, and it is interesting to see what he shows.

Analysts say that if he supports his fastball pitching capability, he has clear-cut pitching including curveball, which had been evaluated as a plus-class pitch since his days as a promising player, and splitter against right-handed hitters. He is not at an age when his physical capacity has yet to decline, but if he can withstand a season well, he has the capacity to continue serving as Lotte's pitcher. Whether Lotte's grand adventure will succeed or not could be an important factor that determines his team's advance to the post season in 2025.