The special ace, who erased question marks about his physical condition, even wrote a new history of Hanwha foreigners, '9 consecutive wins + 1st place alone.'
The special ace, who erased question marks about his physical condition, even wrote a new history of Hanwha foreigners, '9 consecutive wins + 1st place alone.'
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When he was hired, he had a question mark over his physical condition. However, his concern was nothing but unfounded. Cody Ponce of the Hanwha Eagles is leading the team's solo advance to No. 1 with more than 1 million dollars.메이저사이트
Ponce signed a contract worth 1 million U.S. dollars (down payment of 200,000 dollars, annual salary of 800,000 dollars) in December last year and joined the Hanwha Eagles team. Expectations were high as it filled the ceiling of new foreign players.
He was highly praised for his experience in both the U.S. and Japanese leagues. In 2020 and 2021, Ponce played in the Major League (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates, recording one win, seven losses and an ERA of 5.86 in 20 games (five starts). During three seasons with the Nippon-Ham Fighters from 2022 to 2023, and the Rakuten Golden Eagles in 2024, he recorded 10 wins, 16 losses and an ERA of 4.54 in three seasons of the Japanese Professional Baseball (NPB). In 2022, he also achieved the record of no-hitter in games against the Softbank Hawks.
Ponce's biggest problem, which was evaluated as having no problem with his skills, was a "health issue." He suffered from minor injuries after his debut as a professional player, and failed to grow as much as he expected. Even when he was an NPB player, he could not play as many games as he played 83 ⅓ (14 games) in 2022 when he played the most innings in the first team. Hanwha, which went through the precedent of Burch Smith, which disappeared after one game in 2023, had to be more cautious.
When Ponce was recruited, Hanwha showed off its stamina to play around 100 pitches per game by starting in 36 of the 39 games he pitched in the NPB. In the 2024 season, he played 127 innings in Rakuten, a combination of the first and second teams, he said, adding that he has no physical problems. The club added, "We expect Ponce to quickly adapt to the KBO League based on his Asian baseball experience and lead the team's starting pitchers as foreign pitchers along with Ryan Weiss, who has already renewed his contract."
Expectations soon became a reality. Ponce had an impressive reporting ceremony with two wins and no loss with an earned run average of "0" in two exhibition games. He displayed powerful ball power by striking out 10 during nine innings.
The upturn in exhibition games continued throughout the regular season. He has led the team's advance with an overwhelming 1.70 ERA with six wins and no losses in eight games and 66 strikeouts in 53 innings. He is playing as the top ace in the league, ranking first in strikeouts, tied for first in innings with a winning rate (1.000), second in multiple wins, third in ERA, and third in on-base allowances per inning (WHIP, 0.187).
Ponce, who played as a strong first starter for the eagle corps, even wrote a new history of Hanwha foreign players. He beat Lotte Giants Jeon Min-jae in the results of the 2025 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League's monthly MVP vote announced on the 8th.
Ponce, who scored a total of 41.97 points with 25 (71.4%) out of 35 votes cast by reporters and 38,934 (12.5%) out of 311,318 fan votes, was named the monthly MVP from March to April, beating Jeon Min-jae, who had a total score of 21.55 points with two press corps votes and 116,390 fan votes. It is the first monthly MVP award for Hanwha since Noh Si-hwan in July 2023, and the first time in about seven years for a pitcher since Jung Woo-ram in May 2018. It is also the first monthly MVP award for a Hanwha foreign pitcher.
Hanwha, which once fell to 10th place, has won nine consecutive games with starting pitchers Ryan Weiss, Ryu Hyun-jin, Moon Dong-ju and Um Sang-baek at the center, pushing the LG Twins (23 wins, 14 losses, 0.622) to the second place and becoming the sole No. 1 (24 wins, 13 losses, 0.649 wins). At the center of the eagle's spectacular emergency is Ponce's performance, who erased the eyes of concern.