Ruben Cardinez (28), who re-challenged the KBO League at Kiwoom Heroes, quickly melted into Korean culture, raising expectations for his performance in the 2025 season.메이저놀이터

The Kiwoom team, which is holding a spring camp in Scottsdale, Arizona, as of the 30th (Korea time), prepared a folk game competition event along with a special meal for the team that cannot spend the holiday with their families. According to the Kiwoom team, four groups, including the pitcher's team, the fielder's team, the coaching staff, and the front desk, had a great time, competing with the jegi kick and the group jump rope for the 500 dollars (about 720,000 won) prize money offered by coach Hong Won-ki, 52, at his own expense. For lunch, they provided special holiday foods such as rice cake soup and jeon. After filling up their stomachs, the players comforted their disappointment by making a video call with their family in Korea.

One of them was Cardinnes, who is in his second year in the Korean league. As a substitute for David McKinnon, Cardinnes signed a 427,000-dollar contract with Samsung in July last year and made his first move to Korea. He left a strong impression with a batting average of 0.348 (eight hits in 23 times at bat) and two homers and five RBIs in the first six games, but quickly disappeared from the first team due to back injury.

Unlike Cardinez, who constantly complained of pain, the examination result was repeatedly that there was nothing special, sparking controversy over fake illness. To make matters worse, Samsung finally replaced foreign player with Lewin Diaz on Aug. 14 as outfield defense that came up after 10 days of absence was pointed out. As a result, Cardinez had no chance to try Korean holiday food.

However, Kiwoom's bold decision has created a stage for Cardinez to challenge himself again in the KBO league. Kiwoom gave up Ariel Furado (Samsung) and Enmanuel de Heysus (KT), a foreign duo born in 1996, who combined for 23 wins last year, and chose two batters, Cardinez and Yasiel Puig (aged 35). In particular, Kiwoom announced the recruitment of Cardinez and made it clear that they thoroughly checked the player's disposition, attitude toward baseball, sincerity and responsibility through two video interviews.

If he is healthy, he will surely satisfy his team's desire to hit long balls. With his physique measuring 185 centimeters tall and weighing 83 kilograms, he played in 75 Triple-A games in the U.S. Minor League right before coming to the KBO League and posted a batting average of 0.277 (80 hits in 289 times at bat) with 20 homers and 56 RBIs (On-base plus slugging) of 0.895. He hit more than 19 homers in the Minor League for the fifth consecutive year and had 116 walks and 294 strikeouts in the Triple-A team, which was not a bad example.

In particular, he is expected to play at the Gocheok Sky Dome, where home runs are not easy, as he is able to consistently produce fast batting speeds that can only be seen in power heaters such as Shohei Ohtani (31, LA Dodgers). "Before coming to Korea (2024), Cardinez often produced fast balls with speeds of 180 kilometers per hour in the minor leagues. If he is healthy, it will be hard to find a batter like that," said a scout A for a KBO club.

Rumor has it that Cadines also smiled broadly at the food he had for the first time in his second year in Korea. "It was a great time to have fun while I was busy with training," Cadines said through the club. "The food was delicious during the holiday season. As we had a great time, I think we will be able to focus more on our training. I wish all of you a happy new year."