Hanwha has recently completed quite expensive infielders by aggressively transferring free agents from outside. The team also scooped up Chae Eun-sung ahead of the 2023 season, An Chi-hong ahead of the 2024 season, and Shim Woo-joon ahead of the 2025 season. Except for third baseman Noh Si-hwan, who has developed his own resources, all three infield positions were effectively filled with outside agents.

On the other hand, the outfield is agonizing continuously. Amid sluggish internal development, Chae has become a player who suits the first baseman more than the outfield. While Chae played 352 ⅓ innings as a right fielder for two years after the transfer, the number of defense innings as a first baseman amounted to 1,204 ⅔ innings. That's why foreign hitters put their utmost efforts into this game every year. We tried to find foreign players who could be the centerpiece of the field. However, most of them failed.안전놀이터

Hanwha, which failed to sign Ryan Healy and Hernan Perez in 2021, signed Mike Turkman, an outfield resource, in 2022. Turkman played in all 144 games in 2022 with a batting average of 0.289, 12 homers, 43 RBIs, 88 points, and 19 steals. However, there were disagreements over the renewal of the contract, and Hanwha couldn't be 100% satisfied with Turkman's offense.

So ahead of the 2023 season, he hired outfielder Brian O'Greddie, who has long-shot power. Hanwha, which had a weak batting lineup until then, had hoped for O'Greddie's slugging power, but O'Greddie was kicked out early in 22 games with a poor batting average of 0.125. As a substitute, Nick Williams, also an outfielder, was brought in, but Williams also did not achieve the performance Hanwha wanted.

After competing with Japanese and KBO league teams in 2024, he had dreamed of making a big hit by recruiting Jonathan Peraza. It was a resource that attracted so much attention that even one KBO league team thought seriously about recruiting Peraza. Peraza showed great performance in the early days of the season and seemed to break the dark history of the Hanwha Eagles at last, but ended up in the middle of the season due to injuries in the middle of the season and analysis by other teams. He hit 24 home runs in 122 games, but his batting average was only 0.275, and his batting average in the last 10 games of the season plummeted to 0.130.

Hanwha's 2025 choice is another outfielder. It was a predictable category given that the infield was somewhat formed, and the development of outfield is still slow. However, the outcome was slightly different. Ogredi and Peraza were players who focused on offense. Esteban Floral, 27, who was newly hired for a total of 850,000 U.S. dollars (down payment of 50,000 dollars, annual salary of 700,000 dollars, incentive of 100,000 dollars), is more advantageous than offense.

When recruiting Floral, the Hanwha Eagles promoted its opponent team rather than its offense. "As a right-handed, left-handed outfielder, he boasts solid physical and outstanding athletic ability," the Hanwha Eagles said of Floral. "In particular, the Hanwha Eagles have high expectations on Floral's baserunning ability. He is also an advantage of Floral. He is evaluated as having excellent batting judgment ability, wide range of defense, and strong shoulders, and has the best defense ability as a center fielder." There was little explanation on offense.

Floral made his Major League debut as a member of the New York Yankees in 2020. However, he was a backup outfielder, which stopped him from drawing attention in offense. He recorded a batting average of 0.192 in 84 games in the Major League, and only 0.173 in 36 games and 111 at-bats for Cleveland this year. In contrast, he was above the league average in defense in the Major League, and his sprint speed (speed at peak) was in the top 15% in the Major League.

Defense and base running are certainly important factors that lead the team to victory, but in fact, there is a risk that this advantage will fade if the offensive performance falls too low due to the nature of foreign hitters. Turkman also had more than average offensive productivity in the league, but controversy continued due to the lack of long shots. With Floral's addition, Hanwha has acquired Kim Kyung-moon's preferred factors, including a strong center field defense and main focus, but there is a possibility that if the attack does not work out well, it will be stressed in many ways.

In terms of major league records, Floral's offensive performance has a decisive reason why he rarely improved, which is that he failed to cope with fastballs. Except for 2023, his batting average against fastballs was at the bottom. He only hit 0.167 in 2021, 0.150 in 2022, and 0.113 in 2024. As he couldn't hit a fastball, which was nearly 50% of his hitting percentage, his offensive productivity naturally declined.

However, he has the potential to improve in the KBO League. Looking at Floral's batting average in detail, he had a batting average of 0.071 on balls over 95 miles (152.7 kilometers) per hour. In other words, his relatively low speed was a little better. In the KBO League, it is not easy to see a 95-mile-per-hour fastball, and his batting average is smaller than that of the U.S. A fastball under 93 miles (150 kilometers) was even better at 0.273. The bat speed according to the statistics also exceeds the average of the Major League. Even if it is not a jackpot, if he shows only the offensive productivity and clutch ability that are above the league's average, he can achieve a pretty good result by combining defense and baserunning contributions. When expectations are relatively low, unusual events often happen again.