Doosan Kim Jae-hwan (35) is in an endless slump. The command tower still trusts me. When will he be able to repay his trust?

Doosan won 5-3 against the Samsung 꽁머니지급 Lions in the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League held at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on the 8th.

Even though they won, there are players who couldn’t laugh. That is Jaehwan Kim. On this day, he and Kang Seung-ho were silent with no hits.

Kim Jae-hwan, who started as the 6th left fielder, went 4 at-bats without a hit. The season’s batting average fell to 0.224.

Kim Jae-hwan hit 30 home runs four times while using Jamsil Stadium, the largest in Korea, as his home. In particular, he hit 44 home runs in 2018, becoming the third ‘Jamsil Home Run King’ ever.

But this year, the sluggishness is serious. In the first half, he posted a batting average of 0.240, 7 homers and 29 RBIs, but in the second half, he has a batting average of 0.125, 1 homer and 4 RBIs.

Now is the time to really do it. Center hitter Yang Eui-ji was eliminated from the first-team entry due to a side injury.

Eui-ji Yang’s departure is huge. It can be seen as half of his power, but as he leaves, it affects the team’s lineup. For this reason, other players have to share and fill the gap left by Yang Eui-ji. One of them is Jaehwan Kim.

Coach Lee Seung-yeop said, “I train every day with coach Koji Goto. I work really hard. I don’t want to see it as an aging curve.”

The command tower cited a drop in confidence as the reason for the recent sluggish performance. Director Lee said, “I’m in a state where I’ve lost some confidence. So, if I hit a good ball, I can rebound.”

In a situation where there is no Yang Will, Kim Jae-hwan’s role has become really important. Director Lee Seung-yeop even picked it up.

Coach Lee said, “I think that Jaehwan is in a very important position with (Yang) Will missing for the time being. I think it would be nice if he had a sense of responsibility. If you do, you can’t rush in, so I want you to make a swing that can feel intimidating.”

There is no alternative to Jaehwan Kim. He emphasized, “From the perspective of the opposing team, it will feel different whether Kim Jae-hwan is present or not. He went on to say, “Blowing can be a sudden rebound in the morning, or a sudden slump can come.

However, Kim Jae-hwan remained silent during the game that day. It showed the fierce swing that coach Lee Seung-yeop wanted, but it didn’t come out at all. He grounded to second base in the second inning, floated to second base in the fourth and fifth innings, and floated to left field in the eighth.

The team won amidst the performance of other players, but as coach Lee Seung-yeop, he desperately hopes that Kim Jae-hwan will come back to life as soon as possible.