The NC Dinos, whose elimination from the postseason was confirmed, fired manager Kang In-kwon.
On the 20th, NC announced, “In order to refresh the stagnant atmosphere due to the slump in performance, we decided to dismiss Coach Kang as the team was eliminated from the top 5.” The remaining season will be led by acting coach Gong Pil-seong of Team C.
NC said, “The club wanted to avoid an organizational culture in which replacing the manager and starting anew became a habit,” and “With the goal of creating a sustainable strong team, we consistently believed in and supported the field, considering the continuity and continuity of the system and leadership to be important, but with the elimination from the top five confirmed, we decided it was time to focus on preparing for the 25th season by refreshing the atmosphere, and so we decided to terminate the contract with Manager Kang.”
Director Kang In-kwon took over as NC’s acting manager on May 11, 2022, replacing former manager Lee Dong-wook. After leading the team steadily as an acting manager, Director Kang signed a three-year contract from 2023 to 2025 after the end of the 2022 season and was appointed as the official manager.
Coach Kang demonstrated his leadership by leading NC to the fall baseball stage in 2 years in the 2023 season, his first year on the job. However, he left the team before completing 2 years as the team fell to the bottom of the league this season.
The atmosphere was good at the beginning of this season. There was a prevailing expectation that there would be a significant loss of power with Peddie, who was a key player on the mound in the 2023 season, returning to the major leagues, but they maintained their second place with a good performance led by the stable performance of pitchers and batsmen.
However, as key players suffered injuries one after another, the team’s atmosphere quickly deteriorated. Following Son Ah-seop’s injury in the last game of the first half, Park Geon-woo suffered a fractured right ulna and wrist ligament damage in late July, which led to his season-ending absence, greatly weakening the team’s offensive power.
On the mound, Lee Jae-hak, Kim Young-gyu, Ryu Jin-wook, Kyle Hart, and Shin Min-hyeok suffered injuries one after another, making it difficult to maintain a stable lineup. In addition, closer Lee Yong-chan suffered from the worst slump, leaving a gap in the backdoor crackdown.
NC, which was struggling with injuries to its key players, recorded the dishonorable record of 11 consecutive losses in August, its first since its founding, and was stuck in last place. After losing 6-7 to Hanwha on the 19th, its chances of advancing to the postseason disappeared.
Meanwhile, Coach Kang, including his period as acting coach, recorded 197 wins, 7 draws, and 197 losses in 401 games, with a winning percentage of 0.500.
NC, which fired its manager with 8 games left, plans to conduct a process of selecting the next manager among various candidates.
