Lee Jae-won (37), a catcher of the Hanwha Eagles in the professional baseball league, left SSG Landers after 18 years of experience after finishing the 2023 season. SSG offered Lee Jae-won, who contributed to five Korean Series wins, a coach position, but he, who had a regret about the player, chose to extend his active career instead of retiring. He became free by asking SSG to release him, and re-employed by signing a contract with Hanwha for a minimum annual salary of 50 million won for the first team. 바카라사이트

As the team showed a severe downward trend in the last two years at SSG, it was questionable whether Lee Jae-won would be able to make a comeback at Hanwha. However, Lee Jae-won, who was desperate due to change of circumstances, played 72 games last year, posting a batting average of 239 (32 hits in 134 times at bat) and one homerun and 16 RBIs. He displayed batting performance that fits the situation with just five sacrifice flies. 

Although his performance is not as spectacular as in his heyday, he played 354 innings as a two-option catcher to ease the burden on his main catcher, Choi Jae-hoon. Notably, he displayed strong trust in the bench due to his stable pitching lead. He ranked third in defense in stolen bases (27.9 percent) among 18 catchers who played more than 300 innings, and saw his salary rise 100 percent this year to 100 million won (approx. Since his release, he has regained his value by making a return to the 100 million-dollar salary. 

Lee Jae-won, who is preparing for the second year of Hanwha at the Melbourne Spring Camp in Australia, said, "When I first came to the team last year, I was busy adapting, but now I am used to it. I became the oldest member of the team (with my colleague Ryu Hyun-jin), and I feel more comfortable than difficult because my juniors follow me well." 

Lee Jae-won, who also lost about 10kg, said, "I'm on a diet every year, but last year I couldn't lose much weight because I focused on the technical part. As a result, I had two injuries, but this year I made my body light so as not to get hurt," and added, "(Choi) Jae-hoon went on a diet as well, and I think he lost weight similarly." 

Lee Jae-won has won five Korean Series titles in his 18 years with SK and SSG, but he also feels a lot from his new team. He said, "I am learning a lot from battery coach Kim Jung-min. In my 20th year of this year, I have met a lot of coaches, and Kim Jung-min is a really good person. I received help in technical areas such as blocking stolen bases, and I feel grateful that I can learn new things at this age. I may become a leader later on, and I think this will be a good experience." 

Although he played for only a year, his affection for Hanwha has grown significantly. His family is so sincere that his wife and two children moved to Daejeon from Incheon. Lee Jae-won, who served as a father of a goose for one year last year, said, "I think it's the last time of a year, but my family will be in Daejeon while I'm playing. My wife made such a difficult decision to help me focus on baseball. Thank you." 

Hanwha's fall baseball, which unfortunately failed last year, is Lee Jae-won's goal this year. Expectations are gradually turning into confidence as he receives the balls of pitchers in the camp. He said, "Our pitchers are really strong as we see from the outside. I got the ball from a team with strong pitchers, and luckily, I met such pitchers even when I came to Hanwha. Since I don't have much experience, there are pitchers who lack confidence in them, so I hope I can be a little more confident." 

Lee Jae-won, who joined Ryu Hyun-jin and other veteran players in the midwinter sea in December last year as a pledge to fail in the semifinals, said, "I told them that we should make a good pledge to go to the semifinals and come on a trip this year. There are many young players in our team, and we need to play baseball to win more games. In that sense, the veteran players should be good at baseball and lead the players well. I will take responsibility and do my best in baseball."