Lotte Giants head coach Larry Sutton (53) suddenly gave up the baton due to deteriorating health.
The Lotte club said on the 28th, “Director Sutton expressed his gratitude for health reasons after the KT Wiz match on the 27th. After consideration, the club decided to respect Sutton’s wishes.”
Coach Sutton missed the first game of this season due to health reasons in the match against SSG Landers, which was resigned on the 17th. Then, on the previous day (27th), he missed the game due to deteriorating health.
Although he did not have a clear diagnosis, it seems that the accumulated stress caused his health to deteriorate as he competed for the lead in the first half and fell into a losing streak in the second half.
Coach Sutton, who took over as manager of Lotte’s 2nd team in October 2019, took over as manager of the 1st team in May 2021 when former manager Heo Moon-hoe was sacked.
Coach Sutton, who finished 8th in a row in 2021 and 2022, seemed to have transformed the team by competing with SSG and LG Twins in the lead until May of this year.
However, it went downhill rapidly from the second half and is currently in 7th place with 50 wins and 58 losses, 5 games behind the 5th place KIA Tigers (52 wins, 2 draws and 50 losses). Fall baseball, which has been expected for the first time in six years, is also becoming more difficult.
The club initially tried to fill the command tower’s contract period regardless of performance, but gave up after seeing Sutton’s sudden health deterioration after the second half.
In particular, Lotte is a club that has lost its manager due to health problems. I couldn’t help but think of the fact that the late coach Kim Myeong-seong, who led Lotte to the Korean Series in 1999, passed away in July 2001 due to acute myocardial infarction due to stress. In the end, the club decided to accept Sutton’s resignation request with a feeling of regret.토토사이트
An official from the Lotte club said, “It’s a different kind of farewell than the manager being hardened due to poor performance during the season. The manager missed last year due to health, and it happened again this year. I couldn’t watch his health deteriorate any more.” “It’s not a situation that I foresaw at all. Originally, the coach was going to accompany me to the Daejeon expedition starting on the 29th,” he said.
If the manager voluntarily requests to resign during the original season and is accepted, the club is not obliged to compensate the manager for the remaining salary. However, Lotte sees that it is different from the general case and continues to support Sutton by paying the remaining annual salary until he returns to his home country.
An official said, “Director Sutton has worked hard for the club since the establishment of the fostering system. Normally, in the case of voluntary resignation, the remaining annual salary cannot be paid, but in this case, as it is an unavoidable parting due to health, the club pays the remaining annual salary.” In addition, a personal interpreter will be by your side to support your life in Korea until the director’s departure.”
The new head of Lotte is acting manager Lee Jong-woon. Lee, who started as Lotte’s 2nd team manager this season, was promoted to the 1st team’s head coach on June 27, and was promoted to the acting manager’s position again in two months.
Acting Lee spent most of his professional career at Lotte during his time as a player, and in the 2015 season he served as Lotte manager and is familiar with the club’s circumstances.
An official from Lotte said, “Anyway, the team atmosphere is inevitably upset, but we expect that the new acting manager will show good leadership as he used to coach at the club in the past.”