By making bold investments, the Hanwha Eagles has built a strong starting lineup consisting of Ryan Weiss, Cody Ponce, Ryu Hyun-jin and Um Sang-baek. The remaining task is to revive Moon Dong-ju (21), the "new king."메이저사이트

Hanwha made bold investments by acquiring Ahn Chi-hong from the Stove League for a total of 7.2 billion won (approx. 4+2 years) and signing an 8-year, 17-billion-won contract with "Korean Monster" Ryu Hyun-jin, who returned from the Major League. After receiving two trustworthy veterans from the pitching staff, Hanwha declared the end of its rebuilding campaign and embarked on a hunt for autumn baseball. Among many experts, Hanwha was considered a leading candidate for the best five teams this season.

However, Hanwha's dream of becoming an autumn baseball team did not come true this year either. In its first 10 games after the season's opening, it rose to the top with eight wins and two losses, marking a good start, but plummeted back to the bottom of the league in late May. In June, the team even replaced the head coach to seek a turnaround, but ended the season ranking eighth in the league with 66 wins, 76 losses and two draws (0.465 win rate).

There are many reasons why Hanwha failed to bring about a good initial atmosphere this year, but the collapse of the starting lineup played a major role. Kim Min-woo, who had been selected as the fifth starter this season, was pitching well in five scoreless innings against SSG Landers on March 26, his first appearance of the season, and three runs in seven innings against Kiwoom Heroes on April 7, his next appearance. However, he left the mound complaining of sudden pain in his next appearance and failed to make the first team stage until the end of the season.

With eight wins and eight losses and an earned run average of 3.72 in 23 games last year, Moon Dong-ju, who became the first Hanwha Rookie of the Year award since Ryu Hyun-jin (2006), also failed to display as much performance as expected. In the first half of the season, Moon suffered extreme slump in 13 games with three wins and six losses and an earned run average of 6.92, going back and forth to the Futures League. His final performance for this season was seven wins and seven losses with an earned run average of 5.17 in 21 games, showing sluggish growth.

In the meantime, Kim Ki-joong and Hwang Joon-seo, who filled Hanwha's starting rotation, also showed poor performance. Worse yet, Hanwha's starting lineup has almost collapsed as foreigners Felix Peña and Ricardo Sanchez, who both started the season together, were sluggish.

Realizing the limitations of starting pitchers, Hanwha also invested a huge amount of money in this year's Stove League. It recruited starting pitcher Um Sang-baek, who was one of the biggest fish in the FA this year, for a total of 7.8 billion won (6.37 million U.S. dollars) for four years. Um achieved double-digit wins with 11 wins, 2 losses and 2.95 ERA in 2022, for the first time, and recorded 13 wins, 10 losses and 4.88 ERA in 156 ⅔ innings in 29 games this season. He has the best starting pitcher who can play full time stably while supporting Ryu.

Moon Dong-ju will have the remaining starting position. If Moon shows an improvement from the last rookie season, the Hanwha Eagles will be equipped with an indigenous starting lineup that no one in the league envies. Encouragingly, Moon has regained his form with four wins, one loss and an earned run average of 2.60 in eight games in the second half of this year. Attention is focusing on whether Moon Dong-ju, who suffered a stagnant period in the third season of his professional debut, will be able to rebound and solve the final puzzle of his ticket to Hanwha's fall baseball.