Dedicated Catcher
Our team's new foreign pitcher, Jared Barnet.
This guy had a certain vibe to him… the neighborhood uncle type.
You know the kind—every neighborhood has one. The guy who wanders around sticking his nose into everyone's business.
Barnet was exactly that style.
A man who barely spoke the language, yet somehow always had so much to say. He dragged his interpreter all over the place, poking into everything.
"He said he bounced around from team to team since he was young… maybe that's why. Adapting is no big deal for him…"
Barnet, who roamed around with his interpreter from day one, adapted to the team almost immediately.
Like a player who'd already been with us for years.
Just look at him now. Over there, laughing it up with a few of the younger guys over drinks.
"By the way, when is he actually going to throw?"
"Right? I'd like to see it once."
Barnet had arrived on Monday, but we didn't get to see him pitch until Thursday.
He claimed he was just getting used to the team training facilities and that was why he was only throwing now… but I didn't really get it.
A pitcher who has to throw on the road all the time, suddenly talking about adapting to a training field?
When Barnet finally took the mound, quite a crowd gathered.
It was only natural—everyone was curious about the first pitches from a guy who'd made a decent name for himself as a starting pitcher in the majors.
He signaled to Jeong Jong-seong, who was wearing the mask, that he was ready to throw, then began a leisurely windup.
A remarkably flexible, compact delivery. His left arm came over from behind, and the ball left his hand.
Pop!
"Hmm…"
Well, it was just the first pitch.
Pop!
Pop!
Pop!
Pop!
"…Guess he's taking it easy since it's his first pitching session in Korea."
"Yeah. No need to go full power."
"Still, isn't it coming out a little too soft?"
"Hmm…"
The radar gun kept flashing numbers in the 80s. You'd expect something in the 90s at least…
That pitch sitting in the high 80s was supposed to be his four-seam…
"Next one's a sinker~"
Without ever cracking 90 even once, he switched to his signature sinker.
The sinker Ho-min had hyped up as the work of a sinker god.
Pop!
Pop!
Pop!
Pop!
"…81?"
"Hmm…"
"Th-the break is nasty, though. Location's good too."
"Yeah."
The velocity was way lower than expected, which left us a little thrown, but the sinker's movement still looked sharp.
It was only a practice session anyway, so I figured this was good enough.
After a few more curves and sliders following the sinkers, Barnet wrapped up his first pitching session in Korea.
The road series against the Raiders.
I took the mound on Friday and left with a 3-1 lead.
But closer Kang Chanjung recorded his first blown save of the season, and my win evaporated.
The game went to extras, and pinch-hitter Jeong Jong-seong's walk-off in the eleventh gave us the victory.
My win was gone and the game had dragged on a bit, but I was still satisfied that we'd won.
Then the next day.
At last, Barnet was set for his first start in the league.
But the catcher's mask that day belonged to Jeong Jong-seong.
Seeing Jong-seong's name in the catcher's spot was pretty surprising.
Not just because he was the backup catcher… but because Barnet had gone straight to Manager Park and requested him personally.
He wanted Jong-seong catching his starts. In other words, he wanted him as his dedicated catcher.
"He's demanding that right after joining?"
Honestly, I was a little shocked. It wasn't something any of us would have even thought of.
No matter how good a pitcher you were, marching up to the manager and meddling with the lineup before you'd even thrown a single game?
I'd never even considered something like that.
But Barnet pushed hard with Manager Park, and the manager went along with it.
Tae-seong hyung filled me in a little on how it had happened…
"Mandeok was too half-assed about it."
"…About what?"
"During practice yesterday. Both Mandeok and Jong-seong caught for him. Apparently Mandeok was kind of phoning it in…"
"Huh?"
"Since the velocity wasn't there, he figured Barnet was just taking it easy and… yeah. He got a little careless."
"Crazy…"
"So Barnet got pretty annoyed."
That was on Ko Mandeok. Jong-seong had seized the opportunity properly.
"Jong-seong's been working his ass off lately. Is he really trying to steal the job…"
While Ko Mandeok had been distracted by his car and messing around, Jong-seong had stepped in and gotten a taste of the starting role.
The starting job had gone back to Mandeok after that, but Jong-seong had been training even harder than before.
Compared to him, Mandeok seemed too busy with his new relationship these days to put in the same effort.
The old Ko Mandeok might have looked like he was slacking, but the truth was he caught every single pitcher's bullpen personally and studied opposing hitters like crazy.
He built his pitch-calling around all that work and produced good results.
There was a reason I'd trusted him completely without second-guessing.
Of course, the starting catcher was still Ko Mandeok. All the work he'd put in over the years didn't just disappear.
But what if Jong-seong kept working this hard and raised his level as a catcher even further?
Honestly, on the offensive side, Jong-seong already had a bit more to offer.
Ko Mandeok with the big power bat versus Jeong Jong-seong, who could execute team at-bats, run the bases, and still drop the occasional bomb.
You didn't need me to tell you which one was more useful to the team.
If Mandeok were some elite home-run hitter it might be different, but he wasn't.
Anyway, for those reasons, Ko Mandeok had to watch the game from the dugout today.
Normally, even when he wasn't starting, Mandeok would be loud and keep the energy up. Today he just kept his mouth shut and stared out at the field.
Our half of the first inning ended scoreless.
Bottom of the first, Barnet took the mound.
After exchanging a few words with Jong-seong and finishing his warm-up pitches, he finally faced his first batter.
Jared Barnet, with 89 career wins in the majors, is finally ready to throw his first pitch in front of Korean fans.
He says his body feels great. There was a minor injury before the season, but he recovered early and has been preparing.
Looking at the records, he made two starts in the minors. The first one wasn't great, but in the second he threw six scoreless innings.
The Savers have been confident Barnet will be a big boost for them. We'll have to see if he can show us the form he used to have.
Barnet and Jeong Jong-seong finish exchanging signs, and here comes the first pitch.
Pop!
"Stri~ke!"
The scoreboard lit up with 90 mph.
From the dugout it looked like it might have caught a little too much of the middle of the plate—a fastball that drifted in.
Lucky the batter just watched it…
"Still, the velocity's decent enough."
Pop!
"Stri~ke!"
Second strike call.
"…What?"
Another 90 mph fastball. And the location was almost identical to the first pitch. Like he'd aimed there on purpose.
The moment Jong-seong tossed the ball back, Barnet went right into his next delivery.
Crack.
A 71 mph curve.
A 12-to-6 curve that dropped low and pulled the bat of Raiders leadoff man Jo Sang-won.
The ball rolled to the second baseman, and just like that—one out.
"What was that? Just taking a look because it's a pitcher he's never seen?"
"Probably."
First pitch a little over the middle. Second pitch a touch lower. Third pitch just off the zone.
All three pitches had been aimed toward the middle. The only difference was that each one got a little lower.
"Wonder how he'll handle the righties…"
Whiff!
Whiff!
Another swing and a miss. This one came in at 91 mph.
I'd love to see the grip on that… Ah! It's a sinker again. But it was a little different from the one before, wasn't it?
The movement…
Exactly. Five miles an hour faster, but less break. Which means… Barnet is controlling both the movement and the velocity of the pitch himself. That's pretty impressive.
Crack.
"Out!"
Crack.
"Out!"
Barnet finished the bottom of the first and headed back to the dugout with Jong-seong.
"…He's throwing well."
"Yeah. Feels like he's just pounding sinkers nonstop…"
"Right. Against the two and three hitters he only threw sinkers."
From then on, Barnet just kept throwing sinkers.
He mixed in the occasional fastball and curve, but it felt like a good 80 percent of his pitches were sinkers.
He threw and threw… and before we knew it.
Suddenly it was the ninth with two outs.
The score was 7-1, thanks to a solo home run he'd given up in the sixth.
He'd allowed seven hits, but every time trouble started he induced double plays or infield pop-ups and shut the Raiders down.
Especially…
"Stri~ke!"
That curve.
The sinker that dominated today's outing was excellent, but it was that curve—snuck in at the perfect moments—that never gave the Raiders hitters a single chance to capitalize.
Crack.
The final ball of the game floated high into the air, and the center fielder drifted in slowly.
The ball settled into Na Seung-won's glove.
"Out!"
"Waaaaaaaaah!!!"
As the final out went up, the roar of our road fans exploded.
And Jeong Jong-seong, mask already flung aside, sprinted up the mound and threw himself into Barnet's arms.
"…"
There had been no place for Ko Mandeok in today's game.
"Let's talk to today's winning pitcher, Barnet."
Of course the postgame interview belonged to Barnet.
With a bright expression, he shared his thoughts on the successful first start.
And near the end of the interview…
With those words, he locked in Jeong Jong-seong as his dedicated catcher.
We took two of three against the Raiders and secured the series win. For the final game of the weekend, the lineup came out with Marte scheduled to start.
1. Jo Chang-jun (2B)
2. Go Young-su (LF)
3. Park Jeonghun (3B)
4. Seo Gyeongmin (1B)
5. Shane (RF)
6. Kang Hajin (DH)
7. Jeong Jong-seong (C)
8. Choi Min-gi (SS)
9. Na Seung-won (CF)
A lineup that barely changed from the usual.
The only real difference was me in the DH spot… and one more thing.
Once again, Jeong Jong-seong's name was written in the catcher's spot.
A sweep of the Raiders.
Two consecutive complete-game wins by the starters.
And the catcher for both of those games had been Jeong Jong-seong.