Strikeout-strikeout-strikeout. The exact opposite of expectations is continuing to unfold. The manager's sighs are deepening as his batting touch shows little sign of revival.
Doosan Bears' regular first baseman Yang Seok-hwan (35) started as the No. 7 designated hitter in the fourth game of the 2026 Shinhan SOL KBO League against the Kiwoom Heroes at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on the 2nd and was silent with three strikeouts in three at-bats.
In the top of the second with two outs and a runner on first while trailing 0-1, Yang Seok-hwan faced Kiwoom starter Ahn Woo-jin and struck out on three pitches. With an unfavorable 0-2 count, he swung and missed at a 133 km/h curveball on the third pitch.
His second plate appearance was also limp. Facing a scoring chance with two outs and a runner on second in the top of the fourth while leading 2-1, he could not get past Ahn Woo-jin and was once again silent after a three-pitch strikeout. This time he fouled off the first and second pitches before swinging through a 143 km/h slider on the third pitch.
In the top of the seventh, trailing 2-4, he came to the plate with one out and no runners. Facing Kiwoom's Park Jung-hoon, he calmly worked the count to two balls and two strikes before striking out swinging on a 148 km/h two-seamer on the sixth pitch.
With three strikeouts and no hits, Yang Seok-hwan's season batting average plummeted from .212 to .205. For the first time since the April 11 game against the Suwon KT Wiz (.179), his average faces the risk of dropping into the .100s after about three weeks.
After being traded and becoming a Doosan man in March 2021, Yang Seok-hwan signed a 4+2-year, up to 7.8 billion won free agent contract with his original team Doosan before the 2024 season. The total for the initial four-year contract was up to 6.5 billion won (2 billion won signing bonus, 3.9 billion won total salary, 600 million won incentives), and it included a mutual option of 1.3 billion won over two years that would be triggered by agreement between the club and the player after the four-year term.
In the first year of the contract, under the trust of then-manager Lee Seung-yeop, Yang Seok-hwan served as captain and achieved the targeted 30 home runs and 100 RBIs at Jamsil Stadium (34 home runs, 107 RBIs). Riding that momentum, he secured the starting first base job early in 2025, but prolonged hitting struggles led to a career-low season: in 72 games he hit .248 with 65 hits, eight home runs, 31 RBIs, 32 runs, a .401 slugging percentage and a .320 on-base percentage. It was his poorest performance since joining Doosan in 2021.
Yang Seok-hwan spent a staggering 82 days in Icheon instead of Jamsil. His time in the second team was also a series of hardships. After being notified of a demotion to the second team following the appointment of acting manager Jo Seong-hwan, he suffered a left rib fracture from a pitch by SSG Landers' Lee Geon-uk and spent a week rehabilitating at the Iijima treatment center in Japan. He also suffered a back injury, and his Futures League numbers were poor: in 23 games he hit .214 with three home runs, 10 RBIs and seven runs.
With the appointment of manager Kim Won-hyung, Yang Seok-hwan was again chosen as the starting first baseman and vowed to redouble his efforts at spring camps in Sydney, Australia, and Miyazaki, Japan. He raised expectations by hitting .301 with one home run, four RBIs, four runs and an OPS of .958 in 10 exhibition games.
But after exactly 30 games of the season, his performance is below expectations. In 27 games he has slumped badly with a .205 average, one home run, six RBIs, five runs and an OPS of .533, dropping to 52nd out of 57 in batting rankings. The slugger who hit 30 homers at Jamsil has managed only one home run.
A more serious problem is his batting average with runners in scoring position. In 26 plate appearances with runners in scoring position, he is 0-for-17 with six strikeouts, making him the only qualified batter with a .000 average in those situations. His spot in the lineup fell to No. 7, but there has been no turnaround. The shock therapy of excluding him from the starting lineup in the April 1 game at Gocheok against Kiwoom also did not work. After going 0-for-1 as a pinch hitter that day, he returned to the starting lineup on the 2nd and suffered the humiliation of three strikeouts.
The manager is frustrated by the slump of a high-paid middle hitter. At Gocheok, Kim Won-hyung said, "As a veteran, Yang Seok-hwan keeps trying various methods while practicing to find his timing, but those parts are not coming through in games," and sighed, "If you are a starter, there is a certain standard that you perform well in games. But Yang Seok-hwan these days falls short of that standard."
Ironically, on the day Yang Seok-hwan was left out of the starting lineup, the Doosan offense erupted for 16 runs and a 10-run victory. But the next day, when he returned to the lineup, the team managed only two runs. Simple comparisons are difficult, but it is clear that the batting touch of this middle-of-the-order hitter is having a significant effect on the team's offensive flow. Doosan is earnestly hoping that the slump-bound Yang Seok-hwan will find a turning point as soon as possible.
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