“Daejeon Idol” and was highlighted as a promising player representing the team.
Jung Eun-won was nominated as a runner-up at the Golden Glove Awards held on Wednesday. Jung received only two votes. As Jung’s performance in this season was not good enough, the fact that she received two votes was controversial. What happened to the idol group in Daejeon.
Jung Eun-won, who debuted at age 18 and took the second base in the Hanwha Eagles, played in 98 games that year and posted a batting average of 0.249. Given Jung Eun-won’s performance, who was born in 2000, the Hanwha Eagles said that it eased its worries about the second base for the next 10 years. Jung has grown as expected. In the 2019 season, he showed off his potential by hitting 148 hits in 142 games. In the 2021 season, he played in 140 games and recorded a batting average of 0.283 and an on-base percentage of 0.407, winning the Golden Glove award, which can only be given to the best player of the season. Up until this season, the popularity of Noh Si-hwan and Moon Dong-ju was lagging behind that of Jung, and the Hanwha Eagles showed little interest in Jung.
However, Jung’s growth has stagnated. He performed well with a batting average of 0.276 in the 2022 season, but his performance did not improve compared to the previous season, and he was sluggish with a batting average of 0.222 in 122 games in the 2023 season. It was especially regrettable that his long-term “eyeball” baseball career disappeared. The number of walks he had in the 2021 season, which he had received the Golden Glove, decreased from 85 in the 2022 season to 62 in the 2023 season, while the on-base percentage, which had exceeded 40%, fell to 0.333.
Ultimately, Hanwha recruited second baseman An Chi-hong from the free agent market. The reason was that even one more infielder who can be hit will definitely help the team, but this decision narrowed down Jung’s position.
Jung has to choose to enter the military. Jung puts it off and dreams of becoming an outfielder again. At the closing camp in Miyazaki, Japan, Jung tested her potential as an outfielder. Although the Hanwha Eagles has declared that they will not play experimental baseball anymore, it gave her a chance to display her talent to the fullest.
It is too early to be hurt by being pushed out of the competition for the starting lineup or by changing her position. Jung Eun-won is only 24 years old again next season. Analysts say that if Jung Eun-won prepares thoroughly with a humble attitude, she has a good chance of achieving more than the glory of the Golden Glove in the 2021 season.
“We gave up the second base to Moon Hyun-bin, a rookie, and Jung Eun-won’s pride must have been hurt as the batting order keeps changing,” a Hanwha source said. “Jung Eun-won is a highly valuable player. Jung Eun-won, who has postponed her enlistment, is determined to show something next season.”