63 → 140 → 139 → 86 hits.
This is the number of hits that Hanwha Eagles infielder Jeong Eun-won (24) has recorded over the past four years since 2020. In 2019, just two years after graduating from high school, he became the starting second baseman and was called the future of young Hanwha. In his fourth year as a member in 2021, he won the second baseman Golden Glove, beating veterans Ahn Chi-hong (34, Lotte) and Kim Sun-bin (35, KIA). In 2021, Eun-won Jeong shone like a supernova. Like Noh Si-hwan in 2023.
Batting average: .283, 6 home runs, 39 RBI, 85 runs, and on-base percentage of 0.407. In 2021, this is the performance that Eun-won Jeong achieved in 139 games. 1st in batting average, runs scored, and on-base percentage, and 2nd in hits on the team.
Ahn Chi-hong, who competed with Jeong Eun-won that year, recorded a batting average of .306, 129 hits, 10 home runs, 82 RBI, 58 runs, and an on-base percentage of 0.379 in 119 games. This is the performance he posted in his second season after transferring from the KIA Tigers to the Lotte Giants as a free agent (FA).
Two years later, the two met as rivals on the team. His performance over the past two seasons has created his current status.
Ahn Chi-hong, who had 264 hits, 22 home runs, and 121 RBIs over two years, became a Hanwha player under the condition of receiving up to 7.2 billion won for 4+2 years. Even though Jeong Eun-won was available, they brought in veteran Ahn Chi-hong, whose main position is second base. The club had no choice but to invest in strengthening its attack power.
If Jeong Eun-won had grown as expected over the past two years, a different picture would have emerged. Because of his psychological pressure, second base defense became more unstable than before. As his mistakes became more frequent, his aggressive defense disappeared.
In 122 games last year, he had a batting average of .200, 2 ERA, 2 home runs, 30 RBI, 50 runs, and an on-base percentage of 0.333. All attack figures have reached their lowest level in the past three years. Last August, first team entry registration was canceled for two weeks.
In 38 games since August, when the team was struggling to get out of last place, he had 17 hits in 96 at-bats and a 1.77 percentage point percentage. Last year, the player who received the highest salary (218 million won) in the non-FA field team did so.
Last year's 'high school graduate rookie' Hyunbin Moon (20) made a scary comeback. Moon Hyun-bin played center field to avoid overlapping positions, but returned to second base in the second half. As of the second half of last year, it was difficult to find anything better about Jeong Eun-won than Moon Hyun-bin. Hyunbin Moon, who has been playing full-time since his first year, has a batting average of .206, 6 ERA, 5 home runs, 49 RBI, and 47 runs. He became the 7th high school rookie to surpass 100 hits. It is a record that even ‘legends’ Kim Tae-gyun and Noh Si-hwan could not achieve.
To make matters worse, veteran Ahn Chi-hong joined.
Jeong Eun-won, who had been thinking about enlisting this year, postponed it to this season. He would not have wanted to leave the team with the worst performance. He had a strong desire to finish well.
Coach Choi Won-ho said ahead of the end of last year's season, "We are thinking about outfielder Jeong Eun-won." He wanted to open a wider path for him.
Eun-won Jeong started off by doing outfield defense training at the fall camp in Miyazaki, Japan. Of course, if he finds the competitive edge he had two years ago, he'll rarely be out in the outfield.
For Jeong Eun-won, who is on the precipice, 2024 is very important.
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