Quick judgment has paid off. In other words, the Hanwha Eagles is close to recruiting outfielder Esteban Floral (27) as a new foreign hitter.
John Hayman of the New York Post, a U.S. media outlet, said on social media on the 11th (Korea time) that “Floral has agreed to a contract with Hanwha.” According to the report, Floral and Hanwha are currently in the final process of signing a contract. The recruitment will be announced once the medical test passes. Floral has no major injury history during his career.
Born in the Dominican Republic, Floral was a former minor league prospect. After signing a contract with the New York Yankees in 2015, he was ranked 38th in the preseason prospect rankings selected by the Baseball America in 2018. Since his debut in the Major League in 2020, he has a batting average of 0.192 (41 hits in 213 times at bat) with four homers and 22 RBIs in 84 games for five years.
His MLB performance is not remarkable, but he has deep pockets in the Minor League. He had a batting average of 0.266, 111 homers and 415 RBIs in his nine-year career. He played for Triple-A under the Yankees last season with a batting average of 0.284, 28 homers and 79 RBIs. His on-base percentage (0.380) and slugging percentage (0.565) combined stands at 0.945. He also has a total of 172 stolen bases in the Minor League. 메이저놀이터
Hanwha, which gave up renewing its contract with Jonathan Peraza (a batting average of 0.275 with 24 home runs and 70 RBIs in the 2024 season), has been moving rapidly in the foreign player market. Considering that there are a wide range of outfield seats in the new stadium that will open next season, the recruitment candidates have been narrowed down to outfielders, not infielders, and center field among them. The biggest goal is to strengthen the center line to be paired with shortstop Shim Woo-joon who was hired as a free agent. The team sought multiple resources that can handle both batting, defense and running base, before joining Floral, who chose to challenge for the Asian League.
Not many officials expected that Florentine would give up the MLB challenge. The competition among KBO League teams was not as fierce. However, the NPB was different. It was hard to predict his future as multiple NPB teams drooled as they moved in all directions. However, Hanwha, which perfectly timed its recruitment, appealed to the players.
