"A 180% increase in annual salary." The special catcher did a great job. You really don't have to worry about 10 years...This is the end of "Trade Swamp"

"A 180% increase in annual salary." The special catcher did a great job. You really don't have to worry about 10 years...This is the end of "Trade Swamp"

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I think the next 10 years will make for a catcher-free season."

Lee Bum-ho, manager of the KIA Tigers, watched the growth of Han Jun-su (26), a promising catcher, last year. Han Jun-su was considered a talent to become the next homeowner since he graduated from Gwangju Dongseong High School and joined Kia as the first team name in 2018. As a catcher needs a lot of experience, it took some time for him to properly establish himself in the first team, but he showed rapid growth last year, contributing to the team's overall win.먹튀검증

During the last season, Lee said, "(Han Jun-su) was a good friend to have. Even when I was with the Futures team, I thought he was quite capable. He was selected as the first choice. If he used to be young and had time to deal with military issues, he will likely grow into a competitive and quite capable catcher in the first division. He has good shoulder, and the bat is very outstanding."

"I know that you are good at batting while playing. I can see that you are making more effort defensively. In our team itself, there are many coaches who used to be catchers. You must be learning a lot from that point of view as well. I think you will grow further because you show me that you are worried about many things. I don't think I can hit the bat better than I am now, but if I grow up more in defense, I think I will be able to make a season without worrying about catchers for the next 10 years. I think (Han) Jun-su will exert a great influence on the team if he continues to grow and fill in his shortcomings as he is now."

Han has grown into a player who lives up to his belief and expectations. He had a batting average of 0.307 (88 hits in 393 times at bat), seven homers, 41 RBIs and an OPS of 0.807 in 115 games last season. He recorded 600 innings in defense, the same level of 641 innings recorded by veteran catcher Kim Tae-gun. It is no exaggeration to say that this is the first season in which he started to be treated as a starting member, and he had the best year ever, achieving a team win.

The Kia team paid compensation worthy of Han's efforts. In this year's salary negotiations, Han Joon-soo signed a whopping 90 million won (140 million won), up from last year's 50 million won (487,540 dollars). He achieved his first salary worth billions of won in his career, and his salary increase rate was 180 percent. Among those eligible to renew the contract, the catcher was raised by Han Seung-taek (65 million won), Joo Hyo-sang (44 million won), and Lee Sang-joon (30 million won) were frozen.

KIA is a team that had particularly difficulty in fostering catchers. It had to endure various bleeding as it recently acquired Park Dong-won (currently LG Twins), Joo Hyo-sang, and Kim Tae-gun through trade. Park Dong-won's recruitment in 2022 was successful, but he became an FA at the end of the season and left the team by signing a four-year contract worth 6.5 billion won with LG. As Park's next batter, Joo Hyo-sang, acquired in a trade with the Kiwoom Heroes in November 2022, fell short of expectations at all, and eventually pursued another trade with the Samsung Lions in July 2023, giving up infielder Ryu Ji-hyuk and receiving Kim Tae-gun. Kim signed a multi-year non-FA contract for a three-year total of 2.5 billion won after the 2023 season. Thanks to veteran Kim Tae-gun and Han Jun-su, who grew up well, KIA was able to get out of the swamp of the catcher trade.

Despite Lee's compliments last year, Han Jun-su shook his head, saying, "I still have a long way to go. I need to do more." Rather than being satisfied with the current situation, Han displayed his strong commitment to grow into the team's No. 1 catcher.

In his eighth year in the professional league, Han was treated as a key player as he exceeded 100 million won in annual salary this year. As Kim is now in his late 30s, his physical burden has increased, which is expected to increase his role this year. Will Han be able to prove coach Lee's saying that he has no worries about the next 10 years, as he continues his strides as a catcher with a batting average of 30 percent this year.