Esteban Floral (28), a new foreign hitter of the Hanwha Eagles who was swinging a hard hit in the exhibition game, is hardly showing his strength as he enters the regular season.
Floral started as the third batter and center fielder against KT Wiz in the second game of the opening of the 2025 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League at KT Wiz Park in Suwon on the 23rd and remained silent with no hits and two strikeouts in four at-bats.카지노
Floral, who entered the batter's box after consecutive hits by Kim Tae-yeon and Moon Hyun-bin in the top of the first inning, started the game with a strikeout by missing his bat on the outside changeup of opponent starter William Cuevas.
In his second at-bat, he also had a hard time with the outside change-up. He swung and missed a pitch that was so far away that catcher Jang Sung-woo missed. Fortunately, he managed to make contact with the change-up that was slightly outwards at the count of one ball and two strikes, and made a ground ball in front of the second baseman, bringing runner Moon Hyun-bin, who penetrated into the third base with a foil, home.
Floral, who added a strikeout by swinging on a cutter high in his third at-bat in the sixth inning, hit the first pitch of the eighth inning with one out and a runner on the first base, pouring cold water on the chasing atmosphere.
The game went into extra time in the ninth inning when Noh Si-hwan shot a tying solo shot. Floral succeeded in getting on base for the first time in the top of the 10th inning when he drew a walk against Park Young-hyun, the opponent with two outs and runners on the second base. However, the score was not achieved due to the failure of the follow-up hit. In the bottom of the 11th inning, KT took the victory by hitting a finishing left-center double against Hanwha Han Seung-hyuk with one out and runners on the first and second bases.
Floral, who hit four ground balls alone in the opening game on the 22nd, failed to report his first hit of the regular season. So far, he has no hit in eight at-bats, one RBI, one walk, and two strikeouts.
Floreal's weaknesses, which had been pointed out even before he moved to Korea, seem to be slowly lifting his head. His strengths and weaknesses were obvious. His strengths include his power, main focus, and range of defense, which had drawn attention since he was a promising player. On the contrary, his disappointing batting eye and contact ability were cited as his weaknesses. In the recent three seasons of Triple-A, Floreal recorded a strikeout rate of 30.3 percent per bat, which ranks him sixth overall in the International League during the period. His ratio of swing and miss (SwStr percent) to total pitching was 15.4 percent, which was the fourth in the league (based on more than 1,000 at-bats). He showed even greater weakness when facing breaking balls.
However, he seemed to adjust to the league smoothly during the exhibition period. He played in eight games and recorded a batting average of 0.400 (eight hits in 20 at-bats), two RBIs, one stolen base, two walks and four strikeouts. He had no home run, but he also showed off his slugging capability by hitting three doubles. However, he has not displayed the same performance as before when he entered the regular season. What is his real self.