Kim Kyung-moon is the new head coach of the Hanwha Eagles.
Hanwha officially announced the appointment of Kim Kyung-moon (66) as head coach shortly after the team's loss to the Daegu Samsung Lions on Feb. 2. Kim signed a contract with Hanwha from this season to the 2026 season with an annual salary of 500 million won and a total of 2 billion won. With a career record of 896 wins, 774 losses, and 30 draws, Kim is getting one last chance at baseball.
Hanwha won its only Korean Series title in 1999. They haven't played in the Korean Series since 2006. The drought is severe. In the meantime, the organization has been torn between rebuilding and winning, and has been in the dark for nearly 20 years. Their only postseason appearance came in 2018.
But Kim Kyung-moon is even more thirsty for a championship. He hasn't won a championship since starting his managerial career with the Doosan Bears in 2004. In 2005, he lost four games to the Samsung Lions, and in 2007 and 2008, he lost two games to the SK Wyverns and one game to the NC Dinos. In 2016, the NC Dinos were swept by Doosan in four games. They have finished as runners-up in the Korean Series four times.
Still, Kim has only failed to lead a team to the postseason in 2006 with Doosan and 2013, his first season with NC, in full-time seasons. Coincidentally, his teams also fell short in 2011 (Doosan) and 2018 (NC) when he resigned midseason.
In short, Kim Kyung-moon is a manager who can't guarantee his team will win the Korean Series, but he can at least guarantee a spot in the postseason. With Hanwha's goal of reaching the postseason, let alone winning the Korean Series, Kim's intuition for players and his ability to solidify the team's present and future made him a perfect fit.
Hanwha signed the 896-win coach to a three-year contract. He will coach 87 games this season and 144 games next year. With 104 wins, he will become the third coach to reach 1,000 wins after Kim Eung-yong (1,554 wins) and Kim Sung-geun (1,388 wins). 104 wins in 231 games is less than a 50% winning percentage. At the very least, we can assume that Hanwha will need to reach 1,000 wins next year to stay on track. At the latest, the team will need to reach 1,000 wins at the beginning of the 2026 메이저토토사이트 season, the last season of his contract, for the team to be in good shape.
Once Kim reaches 1,000 wins with Hanwha, he will surpass Kim In-sung with 978 wins, Kim Jae-bak with 936 wins, and Kang Byung-chul with 914 wins. He will become the third-winningest manager in the KBO, behind Kim Eung-yong and Kim Sung-geun.
If Kim manages to win a Korean Series title during his contract, Hanwha could look to re-sign him beyond the 2026 season. In that case, he could become the longest-serving manager in history. The highest contracts for active managers are Lee Kang-cheol of the KT Wiz (3.4 billion won) and Kim Tae-hyung of the Lotte Giants (2.4 billion won). Kim Kyung-moon is the fourth-best active KBO manager, behind LG Twins manager Yoon Kyung-yup's three-year, 2.1 billion won contract.
If Kim Kyung-moon can maintain a steady performance for three years and help Hanwha win the Korean Series, he could surpass or match Kim Tae-hyung, who holds the all-time record with a three-year, 2.8 billion won ($2.8 million in salary, 700 million in signing bonus) contract with the Doosan Bears heading into the 2020 season.
In addition, Kim Kyung-moon signed a two-year, 390 million won contract in 2004-2005, a three-year, 800 million won contract in 2006-2008, and a three-year, 1.4 billion won contract in 2009-2011, all while at Doosan. In the NC, he signed a three-year, 1.4 billion won contract from 2012 to 2014, a three-year, 1.7 billion won contract from 2014 to 2016, and a three-year, 2 billion won contract from 2017 to 2019. The total amount is 9.69 billion won. Of course, he hasn't received all of this money, but if he signs a new contract with Hanwha, his total contract amount will exceed 10 billion won.
Can Kim Kyung-moon surpass his mentor and predecessor Kim In-saeng, and his protégé and junior Kim Tae-hyung, the great challenge begins.