'Saves Champion to .300 Batting Average': Crazy Talent Ha Jae-hoon Released by SSG... Lee Jung-beom, Park Sang-hoo, Choi Soo-ho and Three Others Placed on Waivers

*This content was translated by AI.

Ha Jae-hoon (36), a player with innate talent, is leaving SSG Landers. Starting as a pitcher and showing potential as a batter, he ultimately failed to secure a starting role and hung his head in defeat.

On the 30th, SSG Landers announced, "To restructure the team, we are releasing players and acquiring development resources. The players to be released are position player Ha Jae-hoon (36), Lee Jung-beom (28), pitchers Park Sang-hoo (23), and Choi Soo-hoo (26), totaling four players."

The most notable name is Ha Jae-hoon. After graduating from Yongma High School, Ha Jae-hoon boarded a flight to the United States to pursue a bigger dream beyond the KBO League.

He began his career as a batter in the minor leagues before switching to pitching. Although he never made his Major League Baseball (MLB) debut, he played for the Yakult Swallows in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) and later in the Japanese independent league before being selected by SK Wyverns (the predecessor of SSG) in the second round of the second stage of the 2019 rookie draft.

SK's decision to draft him as a pitcher proved successful. Ha Jae-hoon secured the closer role from his KBO debut season, recording 5 wins, 3 losses, 36 saves, and 3 holds, earning the title of Relief Pitcher of the Year. His ERA was a mere 1.98.

However, he struggled in 2020 due to a decline in velocity. Eventually, a shoulder muscle injury was discovered, requiring rehabilitation. He continued to struggle even in 2021 and ultimately chose to switch to a position player.

The following year, playing as a position player in 60 games, Ha Jae-hoon experienced a wire-to-wire championship. In 2023, he played in 77 games, batting .303 (61 hits in 201 at-bats) with 7 home runs, 35 RBIs, and 35 runs scored. He posted a .374 on-base percentage, a .468 slugging percentage, and an OPS (on-base plus slugging) of 0.842.

However, he could not maintain his upward momentum in 2024. Last year, he impressed manager Lee Sung-yong with active batting during spring training but suffered an injury during a defensive play in a practice game, forcing an early return home. After rehabilitation, he failed to regain his form from that time. Although he soared in the Futures League last year with a .328 batting average, 11 home runs, and 32 RBIs in 49 games, he managed only a .143 batting average in 18 games after being called up with high expectations.

Ahead of this season, the acquisition of free agent (FA) Kim Jae-hwan further reduced his playing time. He failed to rebound in the Futures League, batting .171 in 22 games, and ultimately faced the pain of release.

The vacancies left by departing players will be filled by development players. To strengthen depth at each position, SSG acquired players from the independent league. They decided to sign three players as development players: pitcher Gil Ji-seok (25) from Hwaseong Corio, infielder Kim Ye-jun (22), and infielder Im Tae-yoon (24) from Yeoncheon Miracle.

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*This content was translated by AI.