Kang Jung-ho School was expected to be effective, but failed to show anything. Lotte Giants’ Han Dong-hee (25) was removed from the first division entry again after a slump.안전놀이터
Lotte removed catcher Jung In-geun, infielder Han Dong-hee and outfielder Hwang Sung-bin from the first team entry on the 29th, when there was no KBO league game. Han Dong-hee, who returned to the first team after recovering from his injury on the 19th, went back to the second team in just 10 days.
Han Dong-hee was expected to greatly contribute to poor Lotte lineup, but failed to do so at all. He hit rock bottom with a batting average of 0.167 (three hits in 18 times at bat) and one RBI in seven games. The three hits that he hit were all single hits, and he could not find a double, let alone a home run. He failed to garner any walks and struck out five.
It was regrettable not only for his batting but also for his defense. He started in four games as a third baseman and recorded two errors during 21 ⅓ innings. Han was excluded from the first team’s entry as both offense and defense failed to contribute to the team.
Han Dong-hee, who wore a Lotte uniform as the first pick of the 2018 rookie draft, drew attention as a “post-Lee Dae-ho” who will succeed Lee Dae-ho, the No. 4 hitter of Joseon. Han Dong-hee, who has shown little growth every year, has been praised for his potential as he hit double-digit home runs (17-17-14) for three consecutive seasons from 2020 and his first .300 batting average (0.307) in 2022.
In 2023, the year after Lee Dae-ho retired, Han Dong-hee had his worst season in 108 games with a batting average of 0.223 with five homers, 32 RBIs and an OPS of 0.583. A desperate man, Han moved to the U.S. with Lee Dae-ho and Jung Hoon and devoted himself to training while taking batting lessons at Kang Jung-ho’s academy, a former major leaguer. At the spring camp practice game, Han hit two home runs, raising expectations for his revival.
However, he encountered an unexpected injury unfavorable factor in the exhibition game even before showing the results of his training in the regular season. While playing at bat in the bottom of the fifth inning in an exhibition game against SSG Landers on March 10, he swung his bat strongly and collapsed complaining of side pain. Later, Han Dong-hee was diagnosed with a ruptured right medulla oblongata.
Han Dong-hee, who started in the second division, recovered from his injury and returned to the first division after preheating his bat with 0.400 batting average (four hits from 10 times at bat) and two homers and three RBIs in three games in the Futures League. However, the sense of hitting in the Futures League did not extend to the first division.
Han Dong-hee will join the Korean Armed Forces Sports Unit (Sangju Sangmu) on June 10. Even if she returns to the first division after 10 days in the second division, she has only one month left. Han Dong-hee, who tried to burn the last flame, was hamstrung by injury and sluggishness and was unable to show any rebound and was forced to join the military.