The Hanwha Eagles made a big picture of the 2025 season when the new stadium will open. Ryu Hyun-jin's unexpected return, however, sealed the highest ever contract in KBO history and forced them to shout "Rebuilding Is Over," but it seemed a bit premature.토토사이트

The 2025 season is a very important season for Hanwha. With the opening of the new stadium, the number of home fans who have suffered from fierce competition throughout this season is expected to actively fill the seats in the stadium.

What Hanwha must repay is its performance. Hanwha, which invested in free agency outside for the first time in seven years ahead of the 2023 season, made bold investments ahead of the 2024 season as well.

The figure has definitely improved from 2023, when it had 58 wins, 0.420, and ranked ninth. It increased by eight wins, and jumped one notch to 0.465, and eighth in the ranking. However, the figure was much different from what Hanwha had expected.

Nonetheless, fans filled Hanwha Life Eagles Park throughout the entire season. The 12,000 seats in the stands were not enough to fully capture the enthusiasm of baseball in Daejeon. Throughout the season, the team occupied a whopping 96 percent of the seats, and eventually attracted 804,204 spectators, breaking the previous record of the largest number of spectators in a team. It sold out 47 times, setting a new KBO record.

To repay his passionate baseball fans, he is committed to making inroads into the fall baseball leagues next season. To this end, he should make up for his shortcomings during the offseason.

The most important thing is a foreign player. Ricardo Sanchez and Felix Peña, both of whom renewed their contracts, packed their bags due to injury and poor pitching capabilities. Jaime Barria (28), who has been keeping an eye on him since last year, performed poorly with six wins and seven losses and an ERA of 5.15 in 20 games. He only had three quality starts (more than six innings as a starter and less than three earned runs). It was comforting to see that Ryan Weiss (28), who was hired as a substitute for the short-term, performed very well with five wins and five losses and ERA of 3.73 in 16 games. He also achieved QS 11 times.

Weiss seems to be well worth renewing his contract. He left a remarkable impact in a short period of time and displayed capability as an innings pitcher, which in particular deserves high marks. Despite playing for a short period of time, his QS was the second after Ryu Hyun-jin (16 innings), and his QS achievement rate was 68.8 percent, second only to Ariel Furado (76.7 percent).

During the 2024 season, Ryu Hyun-jin (158 ⅓ innings) and Moon Dong-ju (111 ⅓ innings) were the only ones who filled more than 100 innings. The two foreign pitchers experienced ups and downs, and the five starting pitchers were a concern for the Hanwha Eagles throughout the season.

The next season could be different. If Ryu, Weiss and Moon Dong-ju keep their positions and select a new foreign pitcher well, the fifth starting pitcher will likely be filled with fierce competition between Hwang Joon-seo, who showed physical challenges during his debut season, and Kim Min-woo, who left the mound due to injury despite outstanding pitching early last year.

On top of that, the bullpen is expected to be guarded by Joo Hyun-sang, who was reborn as a perfect closing pitcher this season, and Lee Tae-yang, who will join Kim Seo-hyun, who has grown into a national team pitcher, after recovering from injury. Expectations are also growing that Jung Woo-joo, who received a down payment of 500 million won as the second-ranked rookie overall, will also have a place in the starting lineup or bullpen. If only new foreign pitchers are selected well, their pitching power will definitely improve from this year.

Foreign hitters are the core of batters. Jonathan Peraza (26) showed tremendous performance in the early days of the season, but the gap between the two was too wide. Peraza, who had a batting average of 0.312 with 16 homers and 50 RBIs in the first half, was a completely different player with a batting average of 0.229 with eight homers and 20 RBIs in the second half.

However, considering that he was injured after colliding with the fence in the middle of the season, he may have expectations that he will be able to show his good performance in the new season after getting enough rest.

Of course, there are many other positions that require more effort. Although Ryu has played a role this season, Chae Eun-seong and An Chi-hong, the "16.2 billion won duo" who joined the Hanwha Eagles as external free agents for the second consecutive year, must play a bigger role. Roh Si-hwan, the two-time batting champion last year, also faltered this season. He could also consider recruiting Ha Joo-seok, an internal free agent, or seeking to turn his attention to the outside world.

Nevertheless, the most important thing for Hanwha's fall baseball will be stable performance by foreign players. How well off-season foreign players will bring in is expected to determine the direction of Hanwha next season.