Veteran KBO pitcher driven to prove skeptics wrong

baseball-pitcher Veteran KBO pitcher driven to prove skeptics wrong By Yoo Jee-ho SEOUL, March 26 (Yonhap) — Now entering his 20th season in professional baseball, Kia Tigers pitcher Yang Hyeon-jong has experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. He has won three Korean Series championships and both the regular-season and Korean Series MVP awards. On the other hand, his Tigers have also finished dead last in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) and missed their share of postseasons during Yang’s time. This year, pundits aren’t giving the Tigers much of a chance. They won the 2024 Korean Series title but then fell flat on their face in 2025 by finishing eighth among 10 teams. Then during the offseason, they lost a pair of All-Stars in shortstop Park Chan-ho and designated hitter Choi Hyoung-woo in free agency. By most measures, they are probably a worse team than a season ago. Yang, 38, wants to prove skeptics wrong. “I really don’t understand it,” Yang said of low expectations for his team, during a media scrum Thursday following the annual media day in Seoul. “Of course, we’ve lost two good players with Hyoung-woo and Chan-ho, but it hurts my pride to see us regarded as a weak team just because those two have left. I don’t know what the basis of such thinking is, and I think we should all try to show something different on the field this year rather than just talk tough.” Yang cited the example of his own team from last season to illustrate his point. The Tigers were virtually a consensus pick to repeat as the Korean Series champions, but they got off to a slow start amid mounting injuries and never recovered. “Just because we’re viewed as a bad team now, it doesn’t mean we will finish the season as one,” Yang added. “I know pundits make their predictions and they’re often wrong anyway.” In the twilight of his career, Yang said he has put aside all personal goals for the good of the team — even if it means he won’t be accumulating his career wins, innings and strikeout totals at the same rate as usual. Yang is already the KBO’s all-time leader with 2,185 strikeouts. He is second overall with 2,656 2/3 innings, as Song Jin-woo’s leading total of 3,003 remains in sight. Yang also trails Song in wins, 210 to 186. “Honestly, I have absolutely zero goals as far as my innings or win totals are concerned. My priorities have changed over the past year,” said Yang, who has thrown at least 150 innings in 11 straight seasons. “I know it sounds cliched, but I just want to help the team win. The team has to keep using good players to win and I want to be a part of that.” Yang dispelled the notion that he had been forcing his way into the starting rotation just so that he could continue to pad his stats. “I’ve never been that way. I’ve wanted only to pitch long innings to ease the burden on our bullpen,” Yang said. “It’s always been about the team.” Now in his late 30s, Yang said the way his body has been betraying him lately also forced him to adjust his goals. “I think I might have been overestimating myself at times. I now accept the fact that I don’t throw as hard as I once did and my mechanics maybe aren’t as sound as before,” Yang said. “So I think it will help the team more if I go out there and work really hard for just