The South Korean baseball club Lotte Giants announced Monday their manager Larry Sutton has stepped down for health reasons.

The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) team said Sutton offered to quit following the Giants' 2-1 loss to the KT Wiz on Sunday, and added they decided to honor Sutton's wish.

The Giants added that their minor league manager Lee Jong-un will serve as interim manager for the rest of the season beginning Tuesday against the Hanwha Eagles. Lee previously managed the Giants for one season in 2015.

Sutton, 53, was first hired by the Giants as minor league skipper in October 2019. He took over the KBO club in May 2021 after the Giants sacked Her Mun-hoe while stuck in last place.

The Giants went on to finish in eighth place among 10 teams in 2021, and also ended up in eighth place in 2022 despite a strong start to the season.

It has been much the same story so far in 2023. The Giants were in third place at the end of May at 27-17, just two games out of first place. Since June 1, however, they have only gone 23-41, the worst record in the KBO in that span.

The Giants have lost seven straight games to fall five games out of the fifth and final postseason spot with 36 games left this season.

Sutton missed a game on Aug. 17 with what the Giants said was dizziness, and the same symptoms kept him out of Sunday's game before the American skipper called it quits.

Sutton's resignation leaves the KBO without a foreign manager for the first time since 2020.

In May this year, the Hanwha Eagles fired their Venezuelan manager Carlos Subero, who had been in charge since 2021.

Sutton played in the KBO from 2005 to 2007, and led the league with 35 home runs in his first season here.

Source: Yonhap News Agency