LG Twins’ Shin Min-jae (28) is confident of his performance in his first international cap.

“It’s been a while since the end of the season and the playoffs, so the sensory part is fine,” he said during a training session for the 2024 WBSC Premier12 team at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul. It’s my first time playing baseball with other players on the national team, so I’m having fun and doing well,” he said.

Shin began his professional career in 2015 when he joined Doosan as a developmental player, but failed to make his first-team debut with Doosan before moving to LG through the 2018 second round draft. After making his first-team debut in 2019, Shin didn’t make an impact until 2022, when he reached his full potential and became LG’s starting second baseman in 2023. In 122 games, he batted .282 (78-for-282) with 28 runs, 47 RBI, 37 runs scored, 37 stolen bases, and a .653 OPS, helping LG win its first Korean Series title in 29 years.

This year, Shin’s performance continued. He had a career-high season in the regular season, batting .297 (115-for-387) with 40 RBIs, 78 runs scored, 32 doubles, and an OPS of .758 in 128 games, and continued to hit well in the postseason, going 3-for-4 (35-for-11) with four RBIs, five runs scored, five doubles, and an OPS of .714 in nine games in the semifinals and playoffs. His performance earned him a spot on the 35-man training roster for the Premier12 squad in November. It is his first international call-up in his 10th year as a professional.

There are not many professional second basemen in the Korean squad for the Premier12.

In fact, Shin Min-jae is the only one. “Shin is a left-handed second baseman,” 토토사이트 said national coach Ryu Jung-il. We’re thinking about what to do if the other team has a left-handed pitcher later on. It would be great if Min-jae can do as much as she did this postseason,” said Ryu, who is looking forward to Shin’s performance.

Shin said, “I’m confident in my defense at second base. Me and (Song) Sung-moon are the only two who are training at second base. I think we are preparing well for what we need to do, regardless of the competition for infielders. Of course, it would be nice to make the final roster, but if not, I’ll just go home and rest. I’m working hard now, so if I go to Taiwan, I’ll work even harder,” he laughed.

“I didn’t think much about it when I was on the 60-man reserve roster,” Shin admitted, ”and then on the last day of the playoffs or the day before, I found out that I was on the training roster, so I felt good. (Jung) Woo-young’s comment on social media that she didn’t know was just a joke. It was my wife’s favorite and everyone in the family liked it,” he said.

Shin Min-jae, who said, “I think I feel good hitting because I’ve been hitting not long ago,” added, “I think it will help me to hit the balls of world-class players in international tournaments. I’m confident in the short game. I like playing in big games and it’s fun. The atmosphere is very different and the game is tight, so it’s fun to play in such a situation. I think that’s the biggest thing,” he said, looking forward to the Premier12. “If you look at the teams we’re going to play, I don’t think there’s a very strong team and I don’t think there’s a very weak team. I think the first game will be the most important. We want to make it to the last game and come back to Korea,” he said.