SEOUL– For the second straight year, the LG Twins will compete in the South Korean baseball postseason without a foreign hitter.
The Twins announced Thursday they will place infielder Robel Garcia on waivers. The Twins have locked down the No. 2 seed in the regular season and earned a bye to the penultimate round of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) postseason.
The Twins will play their final regular season game Sunday against the KT Wiz, and their first postseason game will be Oct. 23.
Garcia, who signed with the Twins in June to replace Rio Ruiz, batted only .206/.308/.353 with four home runs and 19 RBIs in 39 games.
He joined the club in July and batted .300 in his first six games. But he had a dismal September, batting .077 (3-for-39) in 12 games while being demoted to the minors.
Garcia only batted .136/.286/.182 in eight minor league games, but the Twins called him up Monday for one final shot at making the postseason roster.
Garcia went 0-for-6 with a walk in two games as the Twins ran out of patience.
“Manager Ryu Ji-hyun decided we’d be better off without a foreign hitter in the postseason,” the Twins said. “We made this decision after meeting with Garcia in our team office in Seoul.”
The Twins are scheduled to wrap up a two-game series against the Kia Tigers in the southwestern city of Gwangju on Thursday night.
Last year, the Twins left slumping hitter Justin Bour off their postseason roster, and they were eliminated in the first round.
Despite subpar performances from their foreign hitters — Ruiz batted .155/.234/.262 with a home run and six RBIs in 27 games — the Twins have been just fine at the plate.
They entered Thursday’s game ranked second in on-base plus slugging percentage (.742), second in home runs (116) and third in runs scored (697).
Source: Yonhap News Agency