Sidearm pitcher Um Sang-baek (28) signed a four-year contract worth 7.8 billion won (6.37 million U.S. dollars) with Hanwha just two days after the 2025 Free Agent (FA) market opened. As evidenced by the size of the contract and the speed of the contract, Hanwha highly valued Um Sang-baek, who is a starting resource in his 20s. Um is expected to build a native starting lineup with Ryu Hyun-jin and Moon Dong-ju in the 2025 season. He hit the free agent jackpot, but Um was not happy. "I thought it would be great to receive a lot of money, but that's not true," Um said at Hanwha Life Insurance's Eagles Park in Daejeon on April 29. "I feel pressured to produce the results that the team expects."스포츠토토

KT, Um's former team, was founded in 2013 and entered the first division in 2015. Um Sang-baek, who wore KT's uniform as the first draft pick of the 2015 KBO Rookie Draft, has been given opportunities since the first year when KT played a pennant race in the first division. However, he failed to distinguish himself by posting 10 wins and 25 losses with 28 holds and three saves with an earned run average of 6.21 in 213 games before joining the military athletic unit after the end of the 2019 season. Um became the starting pitcher of the team after being discharged from the military in Sangmu in 2021, and has posted a record of 35 wins and 19 losses with an earned run average of 3.90 in 92 games (79 starts) so far this year. In the 2024 season, when he was ahead of the FA, he recorded 13 wins and 10 losses with an earned run average of 4.88 in 29 games (156.2 innings), securing both regular innings and double-digit wins.

"I received so many opportunities that I could hardly afford because I was a rookie when KT first joined the team," Um said. "When I was young, I was a 'hurtful finger' of KT fans, and I settled down to some extent after I was discharged from the military. On the other hand, I felt bitter about leaving the team that made me grow. I was not just happy about signing the free agent contract," he said.

Having made a fresh start as Um Sang-baek from Hanwha, he recently visited a wrap-up camp in Miyazaki, Japan, and greeted his new teammates. "We didn't train together, but we got close as we went out to the ballpark together and ate together," Um said. "We had dinner together from the first day, and captain (Chae) Eun-sung bought us dinner separately. Thanks to such consideration, I was able to adapt quickly."

Um Sang-baek graduated from elementary, middle and high schools in Seoul, but he has memories of Hanwha when he was young thanks to his father from Chungcheong Province. "I think it was when I was in the lower grades of elementary school or kindergarten, but I went to Jamsil Baseball Stadium with my father to watch the Hanwha game," he said with a smile. "At that time, Davis hit a home run, and my uncle who went with me caught the ball and gave it to me. I still remember it to this day." Jay Davis is a long-term foreign hitter who played for Hanwha for seven seasons, and he played a great role with a batting average of 0.328 and 30 home runs in 1999 when Hanwha won the Korean Series.

Um Sang-baek, who went to the baseball stadium holding his father's hand and watched Hanwha games when he was young, will guard the starting pitcher's mound from next season. Both Um and Hanwha are on a new starting line. "2025 is a season where everything is important," he said. "It's a new season that head coach Kim Kyung-moon does from the beginning, and it's at a new ballpark. (Shim) Woo-jun and I are also new," he said. "It is meaningful to start anew with a new mind. I will do my best for the team's fall baseball."