*This content was translated by AI.
The new 丙午 year 2026 has dawned. Each team is expressing their expectations for young guns born in 2002, but it is captain Chae Eun-sung (36) who attracts more attention from Hanwha Eagles.
Hanwha started anew at the new stadium last year and became a huge hit, eventually reaching the Korean Series for the first time in seven years and the first time in 19 years.
The end was unfortunate, but it was a year that gave fans enough satisfaction. And the 5th year of the disease, which was hit with high expectations. There have been many changes, but this time everyone is preparing for the new season with the goal of winning.
Since it is the fifth year of the disease, attention is naturally drawn to the players born in the year of the horse. Hanwha does not have a representative star born in 2002. Kim Ki-joong, who was selected as the second overall pick in the second round of the first round in the 2021 rookie draft, is still difficult to expect to play as a key player in the team.
That's why Chae Eun-sung is in the spotlight. Ahn Chi-hong (Kium) and Lee Tae-yang (KIA), who are the same age, left through the second draft, and they are the most representative players for the year of the horse.
Chae Eun-sung, who started his professional career with the LG Twins in 2014 and played until 2022, moved to Hanwha in 2023. With the recruitment of external FA for the first time in seven years, it has decided to invest 9 billion won for six years. It was the same move as Hanwha's starting point to change.
Ahead of the 2024 season, Ryu Hyun-jin (17 billion won in eight years) returned and experienced an emotional fall baseball with the growth of young players coupled with the performances of Cody Ponce (Toronto) and Ryan Weiss (Houston), who became major leaguers side by side last year. And at the center of it was Captain Chae Eun-sung, who encompassed the players.
Chae Eun-sung, who had a batting average of 0.263 in his first season with Hanwha in 2023 and 0.271 in 2024, raised it to 0.288 last year and recorded 63 home runs and 255 RBIs over three years, making a calculated performance. Moreover, with a batting average of 0.333 in scoring last year, he even played a role as a troubleshooter in important situations.
Of course, you can't just say that it's a completely satisfactory grade. This is because he remembers hitting a batting average of 0.331 with 25 home runs and 119 RBIs in 2018, when he had a career high season. He is doing a great job as a captain, but considering the ransom, it is a performance that he or she cannot be satisfied with as a team or himself.
You shouldn't do well alone. It is practically difficult for Ponce and Weiss, "the greatest duo ever," to succeed and return to the United States, and to hope that new foreign pitchers Owen White and Wilkel Hernandez will play the role 100% of the time.
We should look forward to the performance of young players who have grown further by experiencing the Korean Series last year with the return of foreign batter Jonathan Peraza and new foreign pitchers.
Chae Eun-sung's role is to be able to embrace new and old harmony and even foreign players. He already has two years of experience as a captain and his contract with free agent Son Ah-seop is sluggish in the batting line-up, which makes his shoulders heavier.
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*This content was translated by AI.
