There was no rebound even in the third call-up.
KIA Tigers infielder Hwang Dae-in (27) was expelled from the first team again. KIA excluded Hwang Dae-in from the first team entry ahead of the 7-game series during the Chuseok holiday.
Hwang Dae-in, who joined the first team during the extended entry on the 1st, had only 4 hits in 42 hitting opportunities until the 24th. He walked eight, but struck out 11. He had two home runs and four RBIs, but it wasn’t enough to secure a spot in the first team.
Starting from the opening entry, Hwang Dae-in had a poor batting average of .2019 in the month of April. In May his batting average fell further to .200. The image of always being the mood maker in the dugout with a cheerful smile disappeared, and the body wrapped in impatience became a vicious cycle of not producing results.
Hwang Dae-in, who was expunged from the first team on May 29th, was called up again on June 25th, and seemed to be showing signs of revival by hitting 7 hits in 3 games from the game against LG on July 1st to the game against SSG on the 5th. However, this time, he was diagnosed with a hamstring injury for 4 weeks and was expelled from the first team again. After recovering from his injury, he returned to the first team again in the match against Lotte on August 11, but eventually left the first team again after going 0-hit in 7 at-bats and striking out 3 in 4 games in the match against Kiwoom on the 16th. He got a third chance in September, but again the result was a tear.
With 20 games left in the regular season, it is unclear whether KIA and Hwang Dae-in will be called up again. Recently, depth has been weakened due to injuries to Na Seong-beom and Choi Hyeong-woo. Despite this, KIA chose to send Hwang Dae-in to the Futures (second team) team rather than remain in the first team. In a situation where Hwang Dae-in has not been able to show his colors recently, it is judged that it will be difficult for him to contribute to the first team’s power토토사이트. He can be seen as having taken the initiative early on to plan a new season through reorganization at Futures.
Hwang Dae-in, who wore the KIA uniform in the second first round of the 2015 rookie draft, stepped up to the first full-time first team last year, his eighth year as a professional. In 129 games in the 2022 season, he achieved a career-high batting average of .256 (122 hits in 476 at-bats), 14 home runs, 91 RBI, and OPS (on-base percentage + slugging percentage) of 0.716. The experience and confidence he built up through consistent first-team appearances were believed to be a stepping stone to take a leap forward this year, and he received expectations both inside and outside the country. However, these expectations came back as a burden to Hwang Dae-in, and ultimately resulted in failure after just one year.
The professional world where skill represents everything. This season’s failure can be seen as Hwang Dae-in’s own responsibility. The fact that the team was not able to develop based on last year’s experience and rather regressed was not what the team wanted. Even if you have worked harder and prepared more than anyone else throughout the winter, if you cannot prove it with results, you will lose your place as a professional.
Despite his failures, Hwang Dae-in is still considered one of the players that KIA should utilize. While the growth rate of first base competitors such as Oh Seon-woo and Byun Woo-hyuk is still slow, Hwang Dae-in, who is ahead in terms of experience, must play his part in order to create competitive synergy in the poor first base depth. In terms of batting, considering that he produced mid-to-long-distance batted balls and showed the ability to solve RBIs in chance situations through the 2022 season, Hwang Dae-in’s rebound and settlement in the first team can be said to be the best scenario envisioned by KIA.
The worst situation was that, following Na Seong-beom, even Choi Hyeong-woo ended his season due to injury. The value of the next generation slugger can shine the brightest at this point. Even though it was canceled due to a temporary slump, this is why we are looking forward to the next 10 days.
Will Hwang Dae-in’s time come again? The answer lies not with KIA, but with Hwang Dae-in himself.