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| The game between the Hanwha Eagles and the LG Twins in Game 5 of the Korean Series at Hanwha Life Ball Park in Daejeon on the 31st. Hanwha Ha Joo-seok hits a double play in the bottom of the seventh inning with no outs and runners on first base. Daejeon = Reporter Park Jae-man pjm@sportschosun.com /2025.10.31/ |
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| The game between the Hanwha Eagles and the LG Twins in Game 4 of the Korean Series at Hanwha Life Ball Park in Daejeon on the 30th. Hanwha Ha Joo-seok hits a hit with two outs in the bottom of the second inning. Daejeon = Reporter Park Jae-man pjm@sportschosun.com /2025.10.30/ |
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"I wondered what I could do."
Ha Joo-seok (31, Hanwha Eagles) faced the season with disappointment this season.
He was the first FA to qualify after the end of last season, but he only signed a one-year contract with Hanwha for a total of 110 million won (annual salary of 90 million won and incentives of 20 million won).
There was definitely value as a player. However, it was not easy to give up compensation players from other teams with grade B.
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| The game between the Hanwha Eagles and the LG Twins in Game 3 of the Korean Series at Hanwha Life Ball Park in Daejeon on the 29th. Hanwha Ha Joo-seok and Shim Woo-joon are training for defense. Daejeon = Reporter Park Jae-man pjm@sportschosun.com /2025.10.29/ |
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Hanwha, the original team, also had nothing urgent to do. With the opening of the FA market, shortstop Shim Woo-joon was signed for a total of 5 billion won for four years. For Hanwha, Ha Joo-seok was 'Duplex Resources'. In the end, Ha Joo-seok had no choice but to stamp the amount of money that the FA application was overshadowed.
I prepared for the season at Futures Spring Camp, and I rarely had a chance in the beginning. Recalling the time, Ha Joo-seok recalled "There were times when I didn't want to play baseball" he also said.
I was disappointed, but I didn't let go of baseball. In eight games in March in the Futures League, he swung the bat with a .560 (14 hits in 25 times at bat). While moving between the first and second teams, he demonstrated force with a .404-ri until early May, and eventually received an opportunity with Shim Woo-jun's injury.
The prepared Ha Joo-seok has become a new force for Hanwha. In the 16 games he played in May, he showed good batting performance with .38 percent. When Shim Woo-joon returned, Ha Joo-seok moved to second base. After keeping the first team consistently after the call-up on May 13, he showed a batting average of 297 in 95 games and a four-homer OPS (long hit + on-base percentage) of 0.728.
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| A game between the LG Twins and the Hanwha Eagles in Game 2 of the Korean Series at Jamsil Stadium on the 27th. Hanwha Ha Joo-seok is cheering after hitting a timely hit in the top of the first inning with two outs and runners on second base. Jamsil = Reporter Park Jae-man pjm@sportschosun.com /2025.10.27/ |
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His performance in fall baseball was outstanding. It was the first postseason performance in seven years for Ha. He recorded .350 in five playoff games with the Samsung Lions. In his first Korean Series, he also played in five games and showed off his perfect batting performance with 313 percent.
Although he finished as the runner-up, Ha Joo-seok will have a season in which he made his presence known strongly as Hanwha's main player this season.
Shortly after the Korean Series, Ha said "It's too bad. But I think it's all amazing that we came all the way here"I held out well, too. I endured well thinking about what I could do. I did my best on what I could do, and it's a unique season because I can play baseball until the end. I want to tell myself that I worked hard"I looked back.
Ha Joo-seok will start salary negotiations as the FA contract period is one year. First of all, it is natural that the annual salary of 100 million won will surpass. It is evaluated that an increase of more than 100% is sufficient.
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| A game between the LG Twins and the NC Dinos at Jamsil Stadium on the 1st. NC Kwon Hee-dong is taking a hit. Jamsil = Reporter Park Jae-man pjm@sportschosun.com /2025.10.01/ |
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Kwon Hee-dong (NC), who finished the 2022 season and became an FA, was in a similar situation to Ha Joo-seok. Although he applied for FA, he eventually signed a one-year contract with his original team NC for a total of 125 million won (annual salary of 90 million won and incentives of 35 million won). However, he succeeded in restoring his honor with a batting average of 285 and seven home runs in 95 games in 2023, and his annual salary rose to 150 million won. In 2024, he played in 123 games and hit hard with a batting average of .313 home runs, and this year's annual salary was KRW 225 million.
Even Ha Joo-seok, who has been reborn as a "main player" rather than a "FA failure", has only time left to make amends.
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| The game between the Hanwha Eagles and the Kiwoom Heroes at Hanwha Life Ball Park in Daejeon on the 13th. Hanwha Ha Joo-seok is warming up. Daejeon = Reporter Park Jae-man pjm@sportschosun.com /2025.09.13/ |
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This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
