Mired in last place, KBO club Lotte Giants sack manager

▲ In this file photo from May 5, 2021, Her Mun-hoe, then manager of the Lotte Giants, watches his team in action against the Kia Tigers during a Korea Baseball Organization regular season game at Sajik Stadium in Busan, 450 kilometers southeast of Seoul. (Yonhap)

▲ In this file photo from Nov. 1, 2019, Larry Sutton, then minor league manager for the Lotte Giants, speaks at his inauguration ceremony at Sajik Stadium in Busan, 450 kilometers southeast of Seoul. (Yonhap)

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Mired in last place, KBO club Lotte Giants sack manager

By Yoo Jee-ho

SEOUL, May 11 (Yonhap) -- The Lotte Giants, stuck in last place in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), fired their manager Her Mun-hoe on Tuesday.

The Giants promoted their minor league manager, Larry Sutton, to take over the reins for the rest of the season.

Her had signed a three-year deal in November 2019, but the writing had been on the wall for quite some time, due to his running feud with the front office, namely general manager Sung Min-kyu.

In Her's first season, the Giants finished in seventh place among 10 clubs at 71-72-1 (wins-losses-ties). Through 30 games this year, they were 12-18, worst in the KBO.

The Giants said Sutton has "a deep understanding" on the club's operational and player development philosophies, and they will count on him to right the ship.

It had long been an open secret in the KBO that Her and Sung didn't see eye to eye on the way the Giants were being run.

The front office made sizable investments in the minor league in recent years, in hopes of nurturing young talent for the long run. Her, on the other hand, mostly stuck to veterans without giving younger players a chance to play in the KBO. He and Sung apparently clashed over roster decisions.

The Giants conceded that they'd decided to sack Her because the team and the manager couldn't get on the same page.

Sutton, who appeared in 252 major league games for four clubs, played in the KBO from 2005 to 2007. While with the Hyundai Unicorns in 2015, Sutton led the KBO with 35 home runs and 102 RBIs.

He managed a Dominican Summer League team for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2012 and then worked as the Pirates' minor league hitting coordinator from 2014 to 2018 and spent the 2019 season as hitting coach for the Kansas City Royals' Single-A team, Wilmington Blue Rocks.

Sutton becomes the third foreign manager in the league this season, joining Matt Williams of the Kia Tigers and Carlos Subero of the Hanwha Eagles.

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