Foreigner manager to lead bottom-ranked Hanwha Eagles

The Hanwha Eagles have selected a foreigner coach for the first time since its inception. “We selected former Milwaukee Brewers coach Carlos Subero hailing from Venezuela as our 12th manager,” Hanwha said on Friday. The 48-year-old coach a three-year contract, whose terms and conditions have yet to be publicized.

Subero will be the fourth foreigner coach throughout the history of the KBO League, after Jerry Roister (former Lotte Giants manager, 2008-2010), Tray Hillman (former SK Wyverns manager, 2017-2018), and Matt Williams (Kia Tigers manager, 2020 - ). It is the first time ever that two foreigner managers are concurrently leading two KBO teams, Hanwha and Kia.

Subero has baseball philosophy that is in line with Hanwha, which recently declared its bid to form young and dynamic team after releasing most of its veteran players. Subero managed a number of minor league teams in the Major League from 2001 to 2015, demonstrating his capability to discover promising rookie players. He served as first-base and infield coach for the Milwaukee Brewers in the Major League Baseball from 2016 to 2019. He assumed the manager of the Venezuela national team last year, and brought the team to the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s Premier 12. Unlike Manager Williams, who was once a Major League All Star, Subero never played as player in the Big League.

Pundits say Subero is also skilled in handling data, which was the driving force of the NC Dinos’ advance to the KBO championship this year. “We expect that Manager Subero’s management style that values data will bring about synergic effect to our team,” Hanwha said. Since its appointment Park Chan-hyeok (48) as CEO recently, Hanwha has now a young leadership including General Manager Jeong Min-cheol (48).


Bae-Jung Kim wanted@donga.com