There’s some good news for the second-place SSG Landers. Guillermo Heredia, who has been out of the first team with a thigh muscle strain, is set to return to action. His return is expected to come sooner than the initial report that he would need a month to recover.

SSG club officials provided an update on Heredia’s latest rehabilitation on Monday. Heredia was ruled out on April 4 with a sprained left thigh muscle (iliopsoas).

At the time, it was predicted that he would need four weeks to recover and even longer to play again. However, the latest test results showed that the muscle damage was more than 90 percent repaired compared to the MRI results at the time of the injury.

The club said, “Heredia’s physical ability is good and his will to return is strong, so he is recovering quickly. He is currently running and training, and if all goes well with his rehabilitation, he is expected to play in a Futures League match around the end of next week. At the time of his injury, he was expected to take four weeks to recover and more to play, but he will be back sooner than that.”

Heredia was batting .332 in 85 games before the injury. While he’s been out of the lineup for two weeks, he’s still second on the team in batting average due to his regular at-bats. Only Samsung’s Koo Ja-uk (0.341) is above Heredia.

Outside of Heredia, SSG has no players in the top 10 in batting average. Choi Jeong-jeong is 13th at 0.303. Outside of those two, the team has no other players in the top 30 in batting average. This makes Heredia’s return all the more eagerly anticipated.안전놀이터

Heredia’s presence also had a huge impact on the winning percentage. SSG went 10-16 with a 0.385 winning percentage without Heredia. A three-game series against the Lotte Giants in Sajik from the 15th to the 17th put second place in jeopardy. They maintained their second-place position, but lost ground on the third-place KT Wiz.

On the other hand, SSG boldly removed Kim Min-sik, the main catcher, from the first team on the 18th to refresh the atmosphere. Along with Kim Min-sik, pitcher Shin Heon-min and outfielder Oh Tae-gon were removed from the first team. Catcher Lee Jae-won, pitcher Kim Ju-on, and infielder Jeon Eui-san were named to the roster instead.