The reckless end of the free agent application was disastrous. FA infielder Ha Ju-seok (31) failed to find a breakthrough and remained with his original team, the Hanwha Eagles. It was an ultra-cheap contract with a guarantee price of less than 100 million won (approx.

Hanwha announced on the 8th that it signed a contract with FA Ha Joo-seok for a total of 110 million won, including a one-year contract period, 90 million won in guarantees and 20 million won in options. Although it was difficult for Ha Joo-seok to win a contract with good conditions due to the market atmosphere, it was also difficult to predict that the guaranteed amount would be below 100 million won.

Immediately after the opening of the FA in November last year, Hanwha signed a four-year contract with Shim Woo-joon (30), the largest shortstop in the FA, for a total of 4 billion won (approx. In fact, it was the same contract as Hanwha and Ha's announcement of separation. Ha had to move forward to receive the desired ransom.

However, no club wanted to recruit Ha Joo-seok, an FAB grade player. Grade B requires compensation of one player, other than 25 protected players, and 100 percent of the previous year's player's salary or 200 percent of the previous year's player's salary. Hanwha and Ha Joo-seok agreed to find a breakthrough through sign-and-trade, but this was also not easy.먹튀검증

A club official pointed out the reality, saying, "The big reason why other clubs are reluctant to recruit Ha Joo-seok is because of grade B compensation, and the same is true of sign-and-trade. It is not an easy matter to match the trade card when he is a player whose reward size is a problem."

Ha Joo-seok was literally in a tight spot, where there is no way to continue his career unless he stays at Hanwha over the years. How can a player in a tight spot be greedy? As long as Ha Joo-seok has decided to stay at Hanwha, negotiations are inevitably led by the club. This is why he had no choice but to stamp the guarantee amount of 90 million won.

Ha was a promising player that Hanwha had nurtured as a key shortstop. After graduating from Shinil High School, Ha joined Hanwha in the first round of the rookie draft in 2012, and gradually grew into a key player. Ha began to establish himself in the first division in earnest from 2016, and garnered double-digit home runs for two consecutive years in 2016 and 2017, raising expectations as a shortstop with strong offensive capabilities. Except for injuries, he was constantly appointed as a built-in shortstop in the first division.

As Ha was given a drunk driving ban after the 2022 season, he quickly began to lose his position in the team. Once he was suspended from 70 games, he had to lose half of the 2023 season, and in the meantime, Lee Do-yoon (29) took over as the starting player and erased Ha's position. The same applies to last season. Ha wanted to get a chance as the starting shortstop when the season opened, but he could hardly use his strength after leaving the team due to a hamstring injury. He was behind not only Lee but also rookie Hwang Young-mook (26) as well. Hanwha manager Kim Kyung-moon, who took over the post during the season, gave Ha a chance hoping for his revival, but it was not enough to impress him. Had Ha instilled faith in Kim, the club would not have spent 5 billion won on recruiting Shim Woo-jun.

As Ha could not secure a position to play as the starting member in his team, the FA jackpot went up in smoke. In the end, it became impossible to apply for the FA without being the starting member. Hanwha cool-headedly refused to give a large amount of money to Ha, who was not guaranteed to play in the first division next season, and other teams pushed out the shortstop of each team, and did not move as they could not find grounds to recruit Ha, the backup of Hanwha.

As Ha ended his contract with tears, the FA market now has four uncontracted players. They include pitcher Lee Yong-chan (36), outfielder Moon Sung-hyun (34), outfielder Kim Sung-wook (32), and infielder Seo Geon-chang (36). All four players have similar aspects to Ha Joo-seok, which makes it difficult to expect a contract with favorable conditions even if they can endure in the market right now.

Lee Yong-chan was the finishing pitcher for the NC Dinos, but he had a very sluggish season with 16 saves, two holds, 54 ⅓ innings and an ERA of 6.13 in 57 games last year. In his late 30s, it was not easy for other clubs to pursue recruitment because the compensation scale was large with FAB grade.

Kim Sung-wook played as a key outfielder in NC, and he is a batter with the power to hit double-digit home runs in a season easily. In addition, the compensation scale was small with the FAC grade, so the desired team was expected to appear, but it was less popular than expected.

Seo is in negotiations with his original team, the KIA Tigers. Seo is in a similar situation to Ha. As Kia recruited Patrick Wisdom (34), a foreign hitter, as its first baseman this season, it lost ground. Seo is certainly helping strengthen its depth, but he was a cool-headed backup last season as well. A contract with very good conditions is in a difficult situation.

Moon Sung-hyun is in the most difficult situation among non-contractors. Not only does no other club want to recruit, but even the original Kiwoom Heroes are not active in negotiations, so they are virtually neglected. He is paying the price for exercising his FA rights even though he was sluggish with one win and two losses, three saves, two holds, 38 ⅓ innings and an ERA of 6.57 in 42 games last season.

If the club negotiating with the current non-FA contractors takes the contract of Hanwha and Ha Joo-seok as an example, Ha Joo-seok's tears may be just the beginning. Sign-and-trade also does not seem easy for the remaining four players, especially in the current market situation. Now that there is no positive outlook at all, waiting for four non-contractors seems to be an all-time cold wave.