Oh Seung-hwan, 'Final Boss,' seeks new opponents in MLB

Oh Seung-hwan

By Patrick Bourgo

SAITAMA, Japan ― Hanshin Tigers’ Oh Seung-hwan has just added his name to the increasing list of Korean players looking to make the jump to Major League Baseball (MLB) this offseason, though he is the only pitcher thus far.

Oh has already garnered attention on social media due to his nickname, “Final Boss,” though those familiar with Korean or Japanese baseball, know him for the amazing numbers he’s put up over his eleven year career as a closer in the Korea Baseball Organization League (KBO) and Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB).

The Korea Times spoke with Oh before a game against the Seibu Lions earlier this past season about his career, and time in Japan.

Oh has a 1.69 career ERA to go along with 277 saves in the KBO, and spent the past two years in Japan plying his trade for the Hanshin Tigers, where he saved 80 games.

With all his success, Oh credits many with helping him along the way. According to Oh, “There are many. In Korea, manager Sun Dong-yeol, and also, Ochiai Eiji, who is now the pitching coach for the Chiba Lotte Marines.”

Especially in helping him adjust to pitching in Japan Oh said, “On this team (Hanshin) there are many who have given me a lot of help. I think there is still a lot I have to learn. They also give me a lot of advice when I play and I’ve learned a lot of new things.”

Despite the change in leagues, Oh’s approach to pitching seems to be the same, regardless of who he is pitching against or in which country he’s pitching. When asked about who were some of the most difficult hitters he’s faced, he responded, “It’s difficult to name just one person, because when I enter the game the score is always within three runs, so the situation is more difficult for me, compared to the player.”

He reiterated, “It’s about the situation, not the batter.”

For Oh, it was the off-field adjustments that were much more difficult, “Living in Korea, then coming to Japan for the first time a lot of things were unfamiliar.” He specifically mentioned food. “I like spicy food, that’s why I miss it, but what I miss most of all is the food cooked by my parents,” said Oh.

Recognizing the difficulty in adjusting to a new culture, he also spoke about his experience with some of the foreign players from his time in Korea.

“I felt more empathy (toward the foreign players) when I came to Japan. When I was in Korea I tried to help them out. Since I obviously knew more places in Korea than the foreign players, I first asked them what kind of food they liked and invited them out to where they wanted to eat.”

Oh continued, “Since I came here (Japan) and now I’m a foreign player, I began to understand a little more about that (the experience of being a foreign player).”

Indeed, Oh’s ex-teammate on the Samsung Lions in 2011, Justin Germano (pitched for KT Wiz last season) remembers his first encounter with Oh.

Germano recalls his first day with the team, “After the game, I kind of made the rounds and met a couple of guys and he was one of them. He went out of his way to introduce himself and offered to take both me and Doug Mathis, who had already been there for a few weeks, out for some Korean barbeque.”

Germano continued, “For him to come up to me the first day and be like let’s go grab some dinner, I thought was pretty cool of him.”

While adjusting to a new league and a different culture is important, most MLB teams will be more concerned with his stuff, and ability to get batters out.

When asked about Oh transitioning to MLB, Germano (who has pitched parts of nine seasons in the majors) said, “I always thought that he’d be able to make the jump to the big leagues, just because of his command. He had good command, he threw hard, he had a good slider.”

For Germano, “If you’re throwing hard with command and a good breaking ball, I definitely think you can make the jump, with his velocity I don’t think he’ll have much of a problem.”

With five KBO championships and an appearance in the Japan Series under his belt, Oh has now set his sights on the majors and will be looking to pitch in MLB next season.

Patrick Bourgo is a Seoul-based baseball researcher and writer. Follow him on Twitter: @kballhistory. He can be reached at pbourgo@gmail.com.