Four candidates received a total of four votes. The figure represents this season of the Hanwha Eagles, which had no clear star player.
After the 2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO Golden Glove Awards at the COEX Auditorium in Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul on the 13th, all KBO's official schedules have been completed this season.
A lot of attention was paid to the main characters of the Golden Glove Awards, which determines the best player in each position, but there was a club that did not receive particular attention, so it was Hanwha.
At the awards ceremony, three winners from the winner KIA Tigers, two from the runner-up Samsung Lions, and one each from the LG Twins and KT Wiz, Lotte Giants, NC Dinos and Kiwoom Heroes produced a total of 10 winners.
Except for Um Sang-baek, who played for KT this season, Hanwha also had four candidates, including pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin, catcher Choi Jae-hoon, third baseman Noh Si-hwan and shortstop Lee Do-yoon, but Lee Do-yoon received only two votes and Choi Jae-hoon and Noh Si-hwan received only one vote each.
The Golden Glove award is given to the player who performed the best in a season at a given position. It is a very precious award that cannot be received even if one ranks second or third in each position, and is a dreamlike honor for the players.
However, the fact that only four out of 1,152 votes in four positions showed the reality that Hanwha had no clear star. SSG Landers and Doosan Bears also failed to produce winners, but Guillermo Herredia (outfielder) and Park Sung-han (striker) received 147 and 118 votes, respectively, in SSG, and Doosan also received 60 votes as Kim Jae-hwan (designated hitter) alone.
This is the harsh reality of Hanwha. Noh Si-hwan, who won the home run and RBI title last year, was named the third baseman and Jung Eun-won was named the runner-up in 2021, but these were the only two winners that Hanwha produced in the eight years since Kim Tae-kyun (designated hitter) in 2016.
Of course, Hanwha's move this season was not meaningless. Although the team was sluggish in the early days of the season, it took the lead after the managerial change and posted the most wins (66 wins) since 2018, when it entered the fall baseball league.
Ahn Chi-hong, a free agent transfer, took the center stage, while Kim Tae-yeon, Hwang Young-mook, Choi In-ho and Jang Jin-hyuk showed strong growth. Kwon Kwang-min also gave high hope at the end of this season. However, no player in the fielders showed strong star quality. This was the cause of poor Golden Glove votes.
Among pitchers, Ryu garnered 10 wins, but failed to win the Golden Glove due to unexpected ups and downs in the early days of the season. Moon Dong-ju, the Rookie of the Year last year, also showed stellar performance in the second half, but posted an ERA of only 5.17.
However, he raises hope that next year, when he will start anew at the new stadium, will be different. He brought in foreign players well early on and actively moved in the FA market. Young Guns, who showed potential this season, also have high expectations on their performance.
Four out of 10 Golden Glove winners were foreign players this season, but none of them were even nominated by Hanwha. This shows that Hanwha's one-year overseas farming was a failure.
In the offseason, Hanwha moved faster than anyone else and has already completed its formation of foreigners. It has renewed its contract with Ryan Weiss, who has added stability as an alternative foreign player, and brought in Esteban Floral, who has been called a top prospect in the Major League Baseball (MLB), and Cody Ponce, who has experience in MLB and the Japanese professional baseball (NPB). Floral, in particular, is an outfielder with abundant potential and excellent flagship and defense skills, and is expected to perform well next season.
It is also important to pay attention to the recruitment of free agents. Immediately after the opening of the market, Hanwha acquired shortstop Shim Woo-joon for up to 5 billion won (approx. Shim, who has been discharged from the military athletic unit (Sangju) this year, is a fast defensive shortstop who can be evaluated as one of the top players in the league.
Starting pitcher Um Sang-baek was also brought in for up to 7.8 billion won for four years, but he is a pitcher who is likely to grow further in the future as he is in his 20s with 13 wins this season.
On top of that, not only Noh Si-hwan, who suffered ups and downs this season, but also Kim Tae-yeon, Hwang Young-mook, and Kwon Kwang-min, who rebounded this season, are likely to be listed as Golden Glove candidates if they continue their good performances next season. 먹튀검증
The year 2025 is a very important season for Hanwha. Although the Korean team shouted "rebuilding is over" last year due to recruitment of Ryu Hyun-jin, next year is the time to produce results. Regardless of whether it won the Golden Glove award or not, how many votes it garnered at the Golden Glove Awards after the season could be directly related to Hanwha's performance. If more players show impressive performances in each position, Hanwha's performance may naturally increase.