Hanwha's favorite to win the title after catching a genius hitter. Is LG's dream of losing Kim Hyun-soo and Park Hae-min in a row in vain
Nov 20, 2025
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Last year, Hanwha Eagles, the second-ranked team in the regular league and the runner-up team in the Korean Series, recruited Kang Baek-ho, the biggest fish in the FA batter, and succeeded in strengthening its power toward the championship by strengthening the hit at once.
Kang Baek-ho, who wore KT's uniform as the No. 1 player in the second round in 2018, has a career batting average of 339 hits, 136 homers, 565 RBIs, a batting average of 0.491, an on-base percentage of 0.385 and an OPS of 0.876 in 897 games so far this year.
He has a batting average of 265, 85 hits, 15 homers and 61 RBIs in 95 games this season.
There is a right-handed batter in the center of Noh Si-hwan and Chae Eun-sung, so Kang Baek-ho can enter and balance left and right.
Hanwha ranked first overall with a 3.55 team ERA in the regular league last year, becoming the best mound team, but the hit was weak. He ranked fourth overall with a team batting average of 2666. 4th overall with 689 points and 4.78 points per game.
116 home runs were sixth overall, fifth with a slugging percentage of 0.395 and seventh with an on-base percentage of 0.335 and fifth with an OPS of 0.730.
LG ranked third overall with a team ERA of 3.79, but ranked first with a team batting average of 278 and 788 points (5.47 points per game), and ranked third overall with 130 home runs while using Jamsil Stadium. He came in second with a slugging percentage of 0.409, first with an on-base percentage of 0.361, and second with an OPS of 0.770. While taking the mound, he was able to win the regular league title and the Korean Series title with his batting performance at the top of the list.
Hanwha can expect a big increase in its batting with the recruitment of center hitter Kang Baek-ho.
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Korean Series MVP Kim Hyun-soo and captain Park Hae-min, who contributed greatly to this season's victory, were released as FA, but unexpectedly, there are teams that want to compete fiercely. LG offered Kim Hyun-soo and Park Hae-min the amount set by the club, and both decided to listen to other clubs.
It is difficult for LG to spend a lot of money on Kim Hyun-soo and Park Hae-min because of the salary cap. We don't know when Ko Woo-seok, who is in the U.S., will return, and Park Dong-won and Hong Chang-ki will become FA after next season, so we can't spend a lot of money. The fact that they have won two Korean Series titles to advance to the postseason for seven consecutive years means that there are many players who have done that well, and the players' salaries are inevitably high. On top of that, since the players who have played for a long time become FA one after another, the better the performance, the more the salary cap will be.
Without the salary cap, there is no reason for LG to lose Kim Hyun-soo and Park Hae-min to other teams. LG is the only team that has exceeded the salary cap under the salary cap system. That's how much effort he puts into investing in players. However, as the amount of money that can be spent on the club is set, LG is likely to open its eyes and take it away under the current situation.
Hanwha achieved a rise in power by recruiting 'genius batters' from the most necessary hit, while LG faced a situation where its power fell significantly.
It was definitely the worst moment for LG, which was aiming for its second consecutive win.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
