Shim Woo-joon of Hanwha Eagles marked the first transfer contract in the KBO Free Agent (FA) market in 2025. After receiving a love call from KT and Hanwha at the same time, Shim decided to go to Hanwha with a better offer. The terms and conditions of the contract were a total of 5 billion won (approx. KT's offer was lower than this, and after hearing Hanwha's offer, they gave up following suit.안전놀이터

As it will be known later, Hanwha did not "push and pull" with the scale of Shim's contract. Officials familiar with the situation say, "Rather than negotiating the amount, we were more likely to propose their terms and wait for 'whether to receive or not to receive'." Anyway, in order to bring in an FA player from outside, it was necessary to place a flag-killing bet from the original team, and Hanwha believed that Shim Woo-joon was worth it, so it paid 5 billion won.

Shim is a good shortstop. He basically has good defense and fast feet. He also has good physical stamina. This is something that Hanwha needed in the infield. Hanwha had trouble with shortstop issues in recent years, and when Ha Joo-seok, who had high expectations for a long time but failed to meet expectations, declared himself an FA, it immediately rushed to Shim. Analysts say that Hanwha manager Kim Kyung-moon's tendency to pay attention to details including defense and main focus must have been taken into account to some extent.

Even a good shortstop did not expect a value of 5 billion won. This is because he is not that special in offense. Of course, shortstop is more important than offense, but Shim's batting average was 0.254 and OPS was 0.639. He had a batting average of 0.266, three homers and an OPS of 0.680, in 53 games in 2024. Shim's adjusted scoring capacity (wRC+) has never been higher than the league average.

In other words, if the team focused on offense, Hanwha would not have bet 5 billion won against Shim Woo-joon. No matter how urgent the shortstop is and how likely Shim's offensive productivity is to improve, it is hard to say that he bet 5 billion won after seeing the attack. In the end, he has high expectations for defense and base running. In particular, defense leads to a synergy effect of stabilizing the mound's power. Analysts say that defense indicators have not been stabilized yet in the KBO league as well as the Major League, but it seems clear that Hanwha's field evaluation was very high.

In the Hanwha situation, the stability of the infield defense, including shortstop, is of considerable value than expected. Hanwha's infield defense has not been evaluated well in recent years. The defense was not stable, and the mound was often shaken. However, the offense was frustrating again this time to organize the lineup mainly based on players with good defense. This is why he was not stable even though several players continued to show good performance.

The ratio of Hanwha pitchers to ground balls is higher than the league average. Last year, Hanwha pitchers to ground balls amounted to 46.3 percent, which was higher than the league average (45.1 percent). Lotte (47.3 percent), SSG (46.7 percent) and KIA (46.3 percent) were the teams that induced more ground balls than Hanwha, which is not much different from the second-ranked SSG. Induction of ground balls often results in change depending on the defense capability of infielders. Regardless of the number of errors, just performing one more step can make the batter safe at the first base. In retrospect, Hanwha was not a team that had good infield defense in this regard.

This has resulted in "disruption" in various indicators. Hanwha's average ERA (FIP) last year was 4.52, ranking first in the league. It was much better than the league's average (4.79). However, the team's ERA stood at 4.98 to fall to fifth place in the league, which is lower than the league's average (4.91). Hanwha, along with KT, had the biggest gap between ERA and FIP last year. The batting average on display was 0.342, which was the worst in the league. All indicators said that the team needs to strengthen its overall defense capability.

The Hanwha Eagles recruited Shim Woo-joon to establish an infield defense commander. Players who had been evaluated as good at defense in their existing shortstop positions may move to second base, which has expanded their scope. Esteban Florentine, a new foreign hitter, is also evaluated as a center fielder with good defense. Since the distance to the left and right poles of the new stadium is different, and the right fence is asymmetric, with a tall fence standing at 8 meters, it can be said that the outfielder's range of defense and fence play are very important. If Shim Woo-joon can stand at the center of Hanwha's efforts to make its foundation solid, its hidden value can shine. If the team continues its flagship and operational performance, which was its original strength, and if its offense can be further improved, the valuation of its 5 billion investment could change again four years later.