Lee Jaewon who was released from SSG will wear Hanwha uniform

"Lee Jae-won has agreed to join the Hanwha Eagles," a baseball player familiar with the KBO league said on Sunday morning. Lee Jae-won was offered a coach after the end of this season, but he voluntarily offered to release him, saying he wanted to find new opportunities. Lee Jae-won, who contacted Hanwha afterwards, recently agreed to join the club. Lee Jae-won met with the player and the front desk who were in the SSG earlier this week and held a mini farewell ceremony.

Lee Jae-won has played for only one team for 18 years since joining SK (currently SSG) in 2006 as the first designation. He emerged as the main catcher in 2014, and played an average of more than 100 games every year until last year. Lee Jae-won contributed greatly to winning the Korean Series in 2018 and 2022, and made a reputation as an "offensive catcher" representing the KBO League by hitting double-digit home runs for three consecutive years from 2014 to 2016.

Lee Jae-won, who became a free agent after the 2018 season, remained at a total of 6.9 billion won (2.1 billion won in down payment and 4.8 billion won in annual salary) for four years. In the first year of his FA contract, he had a batting average of 0.268, 12 homers and 75 RBIs, but his batting average fell sharply to 0.185 (two homers and 21 RBIs) in 2020. Although he seemed to have succeeded in rebounding with a batting average of 0.280 (three homers and 30 RBIs) in 2021, he was sluggish with a batting average of 0.201 (four homers and 28 RBIs) last year, and this year, he played only 27 games, losing out in the main competition with a batting average of 0.091 (two RBIs). 스포츠토토티비