*This content was translated by AI.
What final decision will Son Ah-seop (38), one of the "living legends of Korean baseball," make.
While January has passed and February has entered, there is still only one uncontracted person in the free agent (FA) market. It is Son Ah-seop, who is famous for his time as a Gyotja.
Son Ah-seop is one of the living legends of the KBO League. Above all, he is currently the main character of the KBO league record of most hits (2,618). He held the Golden Glove in his arms six times and became the batting king once. He also received the most hits award four times.
Hanwha has virtually handed over its final proposal to Son Ah-seop. An official familiar with the transfer market recently told Star News, "Hanwha presented the '2nd Plan (Plan B)' to Son Ah-seop." I understand that the second proposal was proposed to partially accept Son Ah-seop's requirements, reflecting that part," he said. The ball is now passed on to Son Ah-seop. However, there has been no news that Son Ah-seop has accepted Hanwha's offer yet.
Hanwha recruited Kang Baek-ho as an FA ahead of this season. The positions of the two overlap each other as outfielders and designated hitters. On top of that, another veteran Chae Eun-sung can also play as a designated hitter. Peraza, who is back together this season, and Moon Hyun-bin, who played well last year, are certain main outfield resources. Lee Won-seok, Lee Jin-young, and Oh Jae-won will compete for the other seat. Looking at the current situation, it can be interpreted that Hanwha has completed its power plan for next season without Son Ah-seop.
In fact, not many experts expected Son Ah-seop to be shunned by the market this much. Son Ah-seop's annual salary last year was 500 million won. The team that wants Son Ah-seop only needs to pay KRW 750 million, 150% of his annual salary, to Hanwha. If there are many, there are few. There is even no reward player. However, the prevailing view in the market is that there are many. To this day, no other club has appeared that has reached out to him at all. Even Son Ah-seop pushed for a sign-and-trade, but this also did not happen. Although it even proposed a plan to lower compensation, no significant atmosphere of progressive change was detected.
Son Ah-seop left the NC Dinos for Hanwha through a trade in July last year. Hanwha paid NC one ticket and 300 million won in cash for the third round of the 2026 KBO Rookie Draft. It was clear why Hanwha wanted Son Ah-seop. It was to try to win the game in the fall baseball. At the time, Hanwha explained, "We made this trade because Son Ah-seop, who holds the record for the most hits in the KBO league and has a postseason OPS (on-base plus slugging) of 1.008 in the last 10 years, thought it would help him enter the fall baseball league."
Son Ah-seop has played in 2,169 KBO league games with a batting average of 0.319 (2,618 hits in 8205 times at bat), 182 home runs, 463 doubles, 37 triples, 1086 RBIs, 1,400 runs, 232 steals (72 failed), and 962 walks with 41 bodies, 1336 strikeouts, a slugging percentage of 0.451 and an on-base percentage of 0.391. He played in more than 100 games except for a single season (2024 seasons) from the 2010 season to the last season. He also hit .300 for nine consecutive seasons from the 2010 season to the 2018 season, and also hit triple-digit hits for 14 consecutive seasons from the 2010 season to the 2023 season. In the 2023 season, he became the first in KBO league history to hit 150 hits for eight consecutive seasons. In June 2024, he surpassed Park Yong-taek's (2504 hits) record and became the hero of the most hits in KBO history.
Son Ah-seop recently appeared on "Baseball Ki-in Lim Chan-kyu" and confessed his inner feelings without adding or subtracting. Son Ah-seop said, "I always say baseball is the least loyal thing to people. Because I tried to like, love, and look good, but in the end, he abandoned me and betrayed me," he confessed. Son Ah-seop said, "Honestly, I'm really confident. While going to three teams, I experienced many juniors coming up. There are many juniors who are good at it, but coldly, it's not too much yet. "If I feel too much in the competition with those juniors, I have to prepare for the next (retirement)."
He kept telling his true feelings. Son Ah-seop said, "I was the batting king in the 2023 season. But that winter, I first felt anxious about whether I could do well next year. "I won the batting king and the most hit award, but I wasn't sure," he said. "But there is a difference this year. I'm preparing for the 2025 season with a good feeling with my teacher, who is difficult to reveal why it was hard against the pitcher. He also said, "Even if I can't produce results, this time is really big and precious in playing baseball in the future and as a leader."
Son Ah-seop, a Busan man who is more serious about baseball than anyone else. Recently, a community reported that they saw him in a bathhouse in his hometown of Busan. That means that many fans are really interested in his future. When and how will Son Ah-seop make the final decision.
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*This content was translated by AI.
