Ji-hwan Oh

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JihwanOh.jpg

Ji-hwan Oh (오지환)

  • Bats Left, Throws Right
  • Height 6' 1", Weight 176 lb.

BR register page

Biographical Information[edit]

Infielder Ji-hwan Oh has played in the Korea Baseball Organization and for the South Korean national team, including in the Olympics.

He debuted with the LG Twins in 2009, going 1 for 9 with five strikeouts. He became a starter in 2010 and hit .241/.332/.423 with 13 steals in 15 tries, 13 home runs and 137 strikeouts in 352 AB. He fielded .949 at shortstop, with 27 errors. He made the South Korean national team roster for the 2010 Intercontinental Cup. He hit .200/.304/.400 with four RBI in six games (including a homer off Hong Kong's Tsz-Chun Heung) while he handled 28 chances error-free. He tied for 6th with 17 assists (even with Tetsuya Kokubo, Joo-hwan Choi and Wong-seok Lee).

In 2011, he fell to .212/.299/.295. He rebounded to .249/.332/.383 in 2012 with 23 steals (caught 14 times though) and 55 walks. His 66 runs were 9th in the league. He hit .256/.347/.399 with 8 triples, 81 runs and 30 steals (in 37 tries) in 2013, finishing third in runs (behind Byung-ho Park and Ah-seop Son), tying Soo-bin Jung for the triple lead and tying Jong-wook Lee for 4th in swipes. He was not voted as the best shortstop in the league as that honor went to Jung-ho Kang.

Oh continued his steady progress, batting .262/.354/.413 in 2014 with nearly identical power numbers - he again had 20 doubles and 8 triples, while his homer total dropped by one. He tied Sang-soo Kim for 4th in three-baggers and was 10th with 28 steals. He hit .278/.357/.443 in the 2015 KBO with 41 doubles, 76 runs, 59 walks and 25 steals (in 35 tries). He tied Jae-gyun Hwang for third in doubles, one behind co-leaders Eric Thames and Han-joon Yoo. He was 9th in steals, between Sang-soo Kim and Jim Adduci Jr. He again was not named the KBO star shortstop, as Jae-ho Kim took that honor.

The Twins shortstop hit .280/.387/.494 in 2016; while his rate stats were up, he only made the leaders in triples (5, tied for 7th); Jae-ho Kim was again the league's Gold Glove shortstop (the Gold Glove being the KBO's award for the best overall player at each position, not just shortstop). He had an off-year in 2017 (.273/.363/.407, 8 HR, 10 SB) though he still tied for 9th with 4 triples. In 2018, he batted .278/.354/.396 with 59 walks and 93 runs. He tied Jae-hwan Kim and Yong-kyu Lee for 9th in walks drawn.

Oh was involved in a momentous scandal which would changed the Korean Baseball in 2018. In South Korea, all qualified man serve 2 years of military service, and baseball players are no exception. They had two alternate choices instead of just enlisting into the military. The first one is to join the Sangmu Phoenix or the Police military team, another is win a medal in major international events. Oh hadn't had the military service yet, so he asked national team manager Dong-yol Sun to add him to their roster for the 2018 Asian Games. However, Oh was not the top shortstop in the KBO at that time, so selecting him became a controversial decision. What's more, Oh only got 3 at-bats in that event, so it seemed that he was selected just because he needed to get rid of military service. Manager Sun was even summoned to the National Assembly, and a member of it showed two statistics without name and forced Sun to choose one. Unfortunately, Sun chose Sun-bin Kim instead of Oh, and he resigned 3 days after this incident. As a result, the Police military team was expelled, and the KBO limited that only players who were 25 years old or younger can play in the Asian Games. Oh was also involved in a gambling scandal before the 2019 season started.

Oh hit .252/.339/.378 for LG in 2019 though he stole 27 bases in 32 attempts, his best on the basepaths in a while. He tied for 10th in triples (5) and tied Soo-kwang Ro for 4th in steals. In 2020, he improved to .300/.362/.461 with 41 doubles, 7 triples, 95 runs and 20 stolen bases (caught 8 times). He tied Jun-woo Jeon and Baek-ho Kang for 10th in runs, was third in doubles (after Jung-hoo Lee and Son), tied Aaron Altherr for second in triples (two behind Jung) and was 9th in steals (between Ji-chan Kim and Ja-wook Koo). He still didn't win best shortstop honors, as Ha-seong Kim got the nod.

He missed part of the next season due to the 2020 Olympics (delayed to 2021 due to COVID-19, but keeping the 2020 moniker), as he was the starting shortstop for South Korea. He hit two two-run homers in their games against Israel, off Jake Fishman and Joey Wagman. He finished at .217/.357/.565, fielding .963. He tied for 4th in the Olympics in homers (only Triston Casas, Hyun-soo Kim and Danny Valencia had more), tied Hae-min Park and Juan Francisco for 6th in RBI (5), tied Eddy Alvarez for 3rd in HBP (2) and was 4th with 15 assists (two behind leader Alvarez). For the 2021 KBO, he hit .254/.335/.356 and failed to make a top-10 for the first time in ten years.

But oh, the future was bright for Oh. He hit .269/.357/.470 with 25 homers, 20 steals, 87 RBI and 62 walks in 2022. He tied for 7th in triples (4), was 4th in homers (after Byung-ho Park, José Pirela and Jeong Choi) and tied for 9th in steals. He won his first KBO Gold Glove, as the top overall shortstop in the league. Backing up Ha-seong Kim in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, he was 2 for 5 with a walk, run and a RBI. The LG provided a six-year, 12.4 billion won extension, which was the largest contract in team history. He batted .268/.372/.396 in 2023, tying Jung for 7th in walks (64). In the 2023 Korean Series, he helped LG to its first title in 29 years. He homered in Game 2, hit a 3-run, game-winning, 9th-inning homer off the kt Wiz's closer Jae-yun Kim in Game 3 and cracked another three-run bomb in Game 4. Jae-hyun Kim was the only prior player to homer in three straight Series games, but that was over two Series. Oh won the Korean Series MVP.

Sources[edit]

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