“You have to prove it with results rather than hard work.”
Song Seung-hwan, 23, joined the NC Dinos from the Doosan Bears in the second round of the draft on May 22.
After joining Doosan in the second round (19th overall) of the 2019 KBO Draft, Song was highly touted as a big infield prospect.
He was highly regarded for his power and strength, as he proved at Seoul High School that “those who are good at baseball are good at baseball” by wearing a catcher’s mask whenever Kang Baek-ho (KT), a year his senior, was pitching.
After appearing in just two games in 2019, he chose to join the active roster the following year, along with his “best friend” Kim Dae-hyun (Doosan). With Doosan’s strong lineup, the idea was to get his military service out of the way quickly so he could challenge for the first team once again.
It was 2022 when he returned from his military service. Song Seung-hwan was judged to have improved. He had more strength thanks to his regular workouts in the army, and his swing trajectory wasn’t bad, but he didn’t get many first-team opportunities. He appeared in 11 games and batted 2-for-5. He had to settle for his first home run.
This season, Song entered the season with higher expectations.
He joined the first team spring training after his rookie year. With the arrival of Lee Seung-yeop, who holds the KBO’s “most home runs” record, it was expected that he would have a synergistic effect. In addition, if he had been focusing on the infield, such as third base, he improved his defense by playing outfield defense.
In his first game of the season on April 8 against the KIA Tigers, he got off to a good start with two hits. In mid-May, he was hit in the eye by a teammate’s pitch during a training session, but he showed great determination by playing with a bandage. However, he was unable to continue his momentum and hasn’t played in a first-team game since August 4 against KT Wiz. This year, Song finished the season with a 2-for-2 record in 30 games.
“It’s a season where I failed a lot. I worked hard to prepare, 먹튀검증토토사이트 but I think I lost my balance and got lost a lot. It’s very disappointing,” he said of the season.
The second round of the draft is open to players who are not on the 35-man roster. Players in their first through third years, foreign players, and free agents are not eligible.
This year’s nominations were made in reverse order of performance, with first through seventh place players available in the third round and eighth through 10th place players available in the fifth round. The compensation amount is 400 million won in the first round, 300 million won in the second round, 200 million won in the third round, and 100 million won in the fourth round.
Doosan was unable to keep Song Seung-hwan on the 35-man roster, so NC selected him in the second round.
Although he hasn’t shown much in his 43 games in the first team, batting 2-for-3 with one home run, NC believes that 300 million won is not a waste.
“He’s a player we’ve been following since his high school days,” said an NC official.
Song Seung-hwan said, “You gave me a lot of opportunities this season, but I couldn’t capitalize. I’m so sorry to the Doosan fans and want to say thank you,” he said, “I can only say that I’m grateful to have received such a great opportunity from NC.”
Song Seung-hwan, who is considered one of the best in the league in terms of his ‘baseball passion’, said, “I will do well now with vigor. I will prove it with results rather than hard work. I will make it a turning point,” he said.
The adjustment shouldn’t be a problem. There are many players in the NC who played together at Doosan. Although he will be leaving Kim Dae-gwan, his teammate Jeon Rugan (formerly known as Jeon Chang-min) had moved to the NC a year earlier as a compensation player for Yang Ji’s free agency. Song Seung-hwan said, “There’s (Park) Gun-woo, (Park) Se-hyuk, who took good care of me, and my friend (Jeon) Rugan. I even played U-23 with (Kim) Han Byul-i,” he said, adding that he was confident of adjusting to the NC.