Jae-hoon Ha

From BR Bullpen

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Jae-hoon Ha (하재훈)

  • Bats Right, Throws Right
  • Height 6' 1", Weight 185 lb.

BR register page

Biographical Information[edit]

Jae-hoon Ha reached AAA as a minor league outfielder then added pitching to his resume. He reached Nippon Pro Baseball as an outfielder, then set a Korea Baseball Organization save record before becoming an outfielder again!

Ha signed with the Chicago Cubs at age 17; the scouts were Steve Wilson and Aaron Tassano. He hit .242/.264/.327 in his debut with the Boise Hawks, with only 6 walks in 65 games. One positive was 8 outfield assists. In 2010, he blossomed, batting .317/.334/.468 for the Peoria Chiefs with a cycle on August 14. His walk rate remained low (10 in 77 G). Had he qualified, he would have been third in the Midwest League in average behind Mike Trout and Brian Cavazos-Galvez. He split 2011 between the Daytona Cubs (.276/.311/.422 in 71 G) and Tennessee Smokies (.283/.320/.403 in 61 G), with a combined 11 assists, 31 doubles and 13 steals in 17 tries. He tied Ryan Flaherty for third-most doubles by a Cubs minor leaguer.

Ha began 2012 back with the Smokies and had mediocre stats (.255/.322/.349) after 82 games. He was still picked for the World team in the 2012 Futures Game. In that contest, he was a bright spot in a 17-5 loss to the US. He started in center field, hitting 8th. With Jesus Aguilar aboard in the second, his 2-run homer off Gerrit Cole put his club up 3-0. He also singled off Dylan Bundy to open the 4th. He was then replaced in the lineup by Oswaldo Arcia, who played right field, with Oscar Taveras moving from right to center. He ended up hitting .273/.352/.385 with 6 homers. Ha was promoted to the AAA Iowa Cubs in 2013, but he only had a .241/.288/.364 there, and he was demoted to Tennessee again. Ha only had a .226/.273/.302 batting line in Tennessee in 2014, then the Cubs turned him into a pitcher. He had a 2.33 ERA in 16 games in A- Eugene Emeralds, not a bad performance. However, that was also not good enough to help the 25-year-old Ha stay in the Cubs system, and he was released after this season.

The Jinju native was unable to come back to Korea due to his signing, so he decided to joined the Tokushima Indigo Socks of the Shikoku Island League plus. He hit .364/.433/.618 there, and the Yakult Swallows signed him. Ha only had a .225/.262/.275 batting line with the big club in 2016, then the Swallows released him. He came back to Tokushima, and became a two-way player. He hit .241/.308/.432 as a batter, and notched 7 saves with a 0.00 ERA in 2017. Ha became a full-time batter in 2018, and recorded a .328/.365/.459 batting line. In the middle of this season, a scout for the SK Wyverns came to Japan watching him, and Ha threw 30 pitches for him.

With the videos from Japan, the Wyverns were impressed by his pitching talent, so they drafted Ha in the second round of the 2018 KBO draft. Ha became the best closer in 2019, when he collected a league-leading 36 saves with a solid 1.98 ERA. He was one game shy from breaking Seung-Hwan Oh's KBO record with a 30-game streak without allowing any runs, but he still set the KBO record for 36 saves as a rookie. Ha then represented South Korea in the 2019 Premier 12 and pitched 4 shutout innings with 3 strikeouts for the Bronze Medalists. However, the overuse ruined his shoulder, so he only pitched 31 innings combined in the next two seasons. He then decided to become a batter again. Ha hit .215/.246/.458 with 6 homers in 2022, then recorded a .304/.374/.468 line with 7 homers in 2023.

Sources[edit]

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