Mystery, why did you sign an FA contract? KIA will be released as a 201-hit batter

Oct 05, 2025

서건창. Sports Chosun DB

Why did they sign an FA contract. Seo Geon-chang, who was rarely used in the first team this year, was finally released by the KIA Tigers.

After completing all regular season games on the 4th, KIA announced the list of players to be released on the 5th, the next day. KIA applied for waivers against infielder Seo Geon-chang, pitcher Kim Seung-hyun and Park Jun-pyo to the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) on the 5th. In addition, pitcher Kang Byung-woo and outfielder Ye Jin-won were asked to cancel their training players. Meanwhile, pitcher Hong Won-bin recently announced his intention to retire to the club and said, `We have decided to cancel it.'

Except for Hong Won-bin, who was first known to have chosen to retire at an early age, the most prominent names are Seo Geon-chang and Park Jun-pyo. In particular, Seo Geon-chang is even more surprising because he signed an FA contract ahead of this season.

Seo Geon-chang, who set a new record for the most hits in a single KBO league season with 201 hits in 2014 when he was a member of the Heroes, moved to KIA based in his hometown Gwangju after leaving the LG Twins after the 2023 season.

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Last year, he played well as a backup member of the first team and recorded a batting average of 310 in 94 games, winning the team's regular season and winning the Korean Series.

After finishing the season in a good mood with the team's victory, he also applied for FA, which had been delayed. However, the FA negotiations were also difficult. There was no offer to transfer to another team, and he also succeeded in signing a contract with KIA in early January. The terms of the contract were up to 500 million won per year. It's a de facto single-year contract.

Seo Geon-chang was not given a chance to play this season in order to extend the contract. There were many holes in the infield due to the injuries of Seo Geon-chang, the main second baseman, and Kim Do-young, the main third baseman, but Seo Geon-chang was only on a business trip early in the season. After being included in the opening entry, he played only 10 games until mid-April, and was sluggish with a batting average of 0.136 (3 for 22), one home run, two RBIs and an OPS of 0.526. In the end, after going down to the second team at the beginning of the season, he was never given a chance to call up the first team again.

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Coach Lee Bum-ho had no choice but to give young players and prospects in their 20s a chance first. Promising prospects such as Yoon Do-hyun, Kim Kyu-sung and Park Min had no choice but to step up first, and they showed a clear growth. In particular, Oh Sun-woo, who can multi-base first base and outfield in the first-base backup category, has proved the possibility of playing as the main player by hitting 18 home runs this year.

Due to this situation, he finally broke up with Seo Geon-chang. Kia, which unfortunately finished the regular season in eighth place this year, will try to improve its constitution for next year. Organizing the team is also the first thing to do. They won the 2024 season together, but unfortunately, they say goodbye to Seo Geon-chang here.

This article was translated by Naver AI translator.