Notification of release? Only those who have received it know how it feels. A 35-year-old genius fighter, too young to end his dream…I'm looking for the last chance.
Jan 06, 2025
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A year full of hardships has passed for Lee Hak-ju. Will spring come to Lee Hak-ju in 2025.
Since returning to the KBO League in 2019, he has played six seasons. He spent three years with the Samsung Lions and three years with the Lotte Giants.
Born in 1990, he was a genius who was close to playing in the Major League. He was recruited to fill the shortstop position of Lotte, which was once the Muju Communist Party, but he was not satisfied with both offense and defense. In particular, in the case of defense, shrewd movements were by far outstanding, but there were many unexpected mistakes.
2024 was the coldest and most baseball-thirsty year of the past six years. He played only 43 games and played 105 at-bats.
His batting average of 263 OPS (on-base plus slugging) of 0.709 is not as bad as expected. He barely exceeded 20% for three years from 2021.
The slump was long. It was a season that started with grandmother's tears in her heart, but she faced the shock of being eliminated from the opening entry.
Since then, he has had four hits against the NC Dinos on March 31, when he returned to the first team, smiling brightly for the first time in a long time. It was the first four hits in 1,808 days since April 2019, when Korea made its debut season. Since then, the pace has been good enough to exceed 500 batting average until mid-April.
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Participation in the Futures game also decreased, and he was eventually notified of his release in November after the season was over. It is a Lotte club that has only about 300 million won left until the final salary cap in 2024. Without Kim Tae-hyung's intention, Lee Hak-joo's annual salary of 92 million won could have been a burden.
Asked what he is up to, Lee Hak-joo said, "I'm waiting to hear from you. I spent this winter working hard on my personal training. He emphasized that he trained at the lesson hall of his acquaintances and did not rest weight.
It is not easy to train vaguely without guaranteeing the future. Still, Lee Hak-joo's passion for baseball is still hot. He stressed that `What I want to do the most is baseball, and what I need to do now is train.'
He is 35 years old this year, and it is still too early to finish his career as a player. Born in 1990, it was the center of the golden shortstop era. While the fourth shortstop (Kim Sang-soo, Ahn Chi-hong, Oh Ji-hwan and Huh Kyung-min) won the national team in high school, Lee Hak-joo enjoyed more spotlight by advancing to the Chicago Cubs in the Major League Baseball.
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Among the five people remaining in the FA market, Class B Ha Joo-seok, who has the same position as Lee Hak-joo, has not been able to find a team. The original Hanwha Eagles have already distanced themselves from Ha Joo-seok by recruiting Shim Woo-joon.
Lee Hak-joo is four years older than Ha Joo-seok, but there is no burden of compensation as he is a released player. Its unique cheerful footwork and agile ballhandling are recognized by all baseball circles.
"Only those who have experienced it will know how they feel when they are notified of the release. Now that the new year has come, I'm going to forget what happened until last year. I don't have the decision to extend my career. I just wait and prepare."
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This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
