Who's the shortstop? Doosan, FA are not interested in Ha Joo-seok → Inside infinite competition
Dec 23, 2024
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Doosan suffered a lot of bleeding in the stove league this year. Kim Jae-ho, who held the shortstop position for the past 10 years, retired. Heo Kyung-min, the main third baseman, transferred to KT through an FA contract. Reliever Kim Kang-ryul also left for LG. In other words, Doosan's two pillars supporting the left infield were pulled out at the same time.
In this respect, Ha Joo-seok is a resource that Doosan will be fully interested in. A total of 20 players have applied for FA in this year's stove league. As of the 23rd, 15 people have completed the contract. Grade B shortstop Ha Joo-seok, pitcher Lee Yong-chan, C-grade infielder Seo Geon-chang, outfielder Kim Sung-wook and pitcher Moon Sung-hyun are still under contract. Ha is still 30 years old, the youngest among them. He is a former top prospect appointed by Hanwha as the No. 1 player in the first round in the 2012 rookie draft. He didn't have full potential, but he proved his skills enough in the first team.
In fact, Doosan's infield is completely in limbo. Holes in shortstop and third baseman affected second baseman. Kang Seung-ho, who was in charge of second base this year, entered the front new round by drawing a picture of moving to third base. A Doosan official said, `We don't know right now. Seven to eight people compete in the spring camp." Doosan has already started beta testing by putting Kang Seung-ho on third base in the closing camp.
According to statistics site Statistics, Ha played 794 games as shortstop, 20 games as third baseman, and 3 games as second baseman. He is a player who can scratch Doosan's itchy part right now. In response, a Doosan official drew the line, saying, `The situation of the FA market and our team is separate.' In other words, there is no plan to transfuse from the outside just because the main shortstop has not been determined.
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In addition, Doosan has abundant promising resources in the infield, just like 'Hwapun Myeongga'. Opportunities are expected to return to Kang Seung-ho, Park Joon-young, Lee Yoo-chan, Oh Myung-jin, Park Ji-hoon, Yeo Dong-gun, and Park Joon-soon. Lee Yoo-chan has played 679 ⅔ innings as a second baseman, 400 ⅓ innings as a shortstop, and 363 ⅓ innings as a third baseman. In shortstop this year, Park Joon-young was in charge of 434 ⅔ innings, the most. Rookie Yeo Dong-gun also played in five games as a second baseman and recorded a batting average of 40%, raising expectations. Park Joon-soon, who was selected as No. 6 in the first round of this year's rookie draft, is also an infielder from the youth team, so he has great potential.
Except for Doosan, most of them are definitely shortstop positions. Ha Joo-seok's position narrowed further as his former Hanwha recruited Shim Woo-joon as an FA. KT, which sent Shim Woo-joon, also has no worries. Second baseman Kim Sang-soo's original position is shortstop. In addition, KIA Park Chan-ho, Samsung Lee Jae-hyun, LG Oh Ji-hwan, SSG Park Sung-han, Lotte Park Seung-wook, and NC Kim Joo-won are holding out. Kiwoom is a team that prefers utility players and recently recruited veteran infielder Oh Sun-jin, so the connection with Ha Joo-seok is weak.
dhhan@sportschosun.com
