The outline of the foreign hitter the Doosan Bears are looking for for the 2024 season has been revealed. Jose Rojas (30), who has been a strong player in the second half of this year, is also included in the candidate group, but the plan is to first look for a player with better defensive skills than Rojas.

A Doosan official who met at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on the 23rd said, “We are looking for an outfielder with good defensive skills” regarding foreign batter farming for the 2024 season.

This official said, “Coach Seung-yeop Lee is looking for an outfielder who can play defense. If an outfielder who can defend is placed, Kim Jae-hwan, who has poor defensive skills, can play the designated hitter. Only then can player operations run smoothly. However, he explained, “There are not many outfielders who are good at defense.”

The reason Doosan is looking for a new foreign hitter is because the existing Rojas did not perform well enough to confirm a contract renewal. Although it was not so poor that a replacement was decided, it left an 'ambiguous' record that made it difficult to readily suggest that they continue together next season.

Rojas, who became a Doosan Man for a total of $1 million (approximately 1.3 billion won), had a hard time adapting to the league for quite a long time, contrary to the evaluation that he was a “spray heater based on excellent contact ability and a pioneering plan.” Even though he was a foreign batsman, he continued to play the 6th and 7th bottom batting lineup, and even his batting average stayed in the late 100s, and at one point he was on the verge of being released. By the end of June, his performance in 55 games remained at .109, 2.3, 10 home runs, 27 RBI, and an OPS of .678.

Rojas finally began to show off his skills in July, when coach Lee Young-soo's special mental management began. His monthly batting average, which was in the late 100s to early 200s, rose to 20.8 200 in July, and he continued his momentum by hitting .305, 3 home runs, and 15 RBIs in the month of August. Afterwards, he steadily maintained his senses and succeeded in raising his batting average for the season, which had fallen to 100 205 ri, to 20 5 3 ri.

Doosan initially evaluated Rojas as a mid- to long-distance hitter with good contact, but surprisingly, he hit 19 home runs. He hit the second most home runs on the team, following home run hitter Yang Seok-hwan (21). The impact of home runs, including the overtime home run in the opening game and the solo home run in the wild card game, was also strong. Rojas continued to hit long balls without any ups and downs, hitting 10 home runs in the first half and 9 home runs in the second half.

Rojas's first year in the KBO League was 122 games with a batting average of .253, 19 home runs, 65 RBIs, 52 runs, and an OPS of .819. To put it bluntly, he did not meet the expectations of foreign hitters except for the number of home runs. In addition, he had a batting average of .256 against right-handed pitchers with 15 home runs (67 hits in 262 at-bats), and a batting average of .3204 against under pitchers (12 hits in 37 at-bats) with 3 home runs, while against left-handed pitchers he had a batting average of 2. He struggled to get 2 pennies and 1 lead (23 hits in 104 at-bats) and 1 home run. To put it simply, the left and right deviation was quite large.

He also alternated between left field and right field on defense, but it was difficult to see defense as an advantage. Even though he was a foreign batsman, there were quite a few cases where he was replaced with a major defender in the latter half of the game to strengthen the defense.