Why is Ha Joo-seok, a 30-year-old shortstop, unpopular

Dec 17, 2024

Sportschosun DB

Ha Joo-seok is currently one of six uncontracted persons remaining in the FA market. Ha has several very favorable conditions in the FA market, but the atmosphere surrounding him is only cold.

Ha is a right-handed, left-handed shortstop born in 1994. He will turn 31 in the 2025 season. He is a young age who can do two more FA depending on his performance in the future. In addition, the key shortstop in the infield is a valuable position. It is not easy to nurture.

Coincidentally, the market situation is the worst for Ha. No club is in dire need of shortstop.

At this year's Golden Glove Awards, seven clubs produced candidates in the shortstop category.

KIA (Park Chan-ho), SSG (Park Sung-han) and LG (Oh Ji-hwan), who have national-level shortstop, are not applicable at all. NC and Samsung also do not need Ha Joo-won and Lee Jae-hyun, respectively, because they have grown brilliantly. Just in time, Samsung signed a four-year contract with Ryu Ji-hyuk, an infield utility resource that can also back up shortstop, for a total of 2.6 billion won.

In fact, Ha Joo-seok's former team Hanwha brought KT shortstop Shim Woo-joon to the FA. Hanwha signed a four-year, 5 billion won contract with Shim Woo-joon, and Ha Joo-seok was pushed back. KT is not worried because veteran Kim Sang-soo can play both second baseman and shortstop.

At least, it can be said that the main shortstop, who is certain about Kiwoom, Lotte, and Doosan, is ambiguous.

Once Kiwoom has sent a player out, it is not a club that spends a lot of money in the FA market. In fact, Kiwoom filled the infield by recruiting Oh Sun-jin, an infield multi-resource released by Lotte after the end of this season.

NC-Hanwha match to be held at Hanwha Life Eagles Park in Daejeon on the 29th. Jung Woo-ram, who started the retirement game, came down the mound after facing a batter. Ha Joo-seok is hugging Jung Woo-ram. Daejeon = Reporter Jeong Jae-geun cjg@sportschosun.com /2024.9.29/

A game between the LG Twins and the Hanwha Eagles at Jamsil Stadium on the 25th. Hanwha Ha Joo-seok is advancing to third base after hitting a hit in the top of the seventh inning. Jamsil = Reporter Park Jae-man pjm@sportschosun.com /2024.09.25/

At Lotte, Park Seung-wook played 833 innings as a shortstop in 2024. Lotte released veteran Oh Sun-jin Lee Hak-joo at the end of the season. Through the trade, Jeon Min-jae, a promising player from Doosan, was brought in and the line was firmly set.

It is true that Doosan needs to reorganize its infield as Kim Jae-ho retires and sends Jeon Min-jae to Lotte. However, Doosan also strengthened its efforts to foster promising players such as Park Joon-young and Lee Yoo-chan.

Crucially, the fact that Ha Joo-seok is a B-grade FA is also a stumbling block. The team that recruited Ha Joo-seok must pay Hanwha 100 percent of the previous year's annual salary and one compensation player in addition to 25 protected players. Regardless of the size of Ha Joo-seok's contract, the question is whether he should bear this much bleeding.

In addition, Ha Joo-seok has a narrow range of use defensively. He is a professional shortstop. According to statistics site Stattiz, Ha has a record of 794 games as shortstop, 20 as third baseman, three as second baseman, three as first baseman, and one as center fielder.

This article was translated by Naver AI translator.