Hanwha Eagles manager Kim Kyung-moon. [Newsis]
Hanwha Eagles manager Kim Kyung-moon. [Newsis]

Hanwha Eagles manager Kim Kyung-moon, 67, will step down at the end of this season.

The club announced Saturday that Kim, the team's 14th manager, would depart following the season finale against the NC Dinos, with his contract expiring. General Manager Son Hyeok will also leave the club when his contract runs out, the team said.

Kim himself acknowledged the end before Saturday's game. "I think today will be my last," he said. "I'm sorry to the fans who have supported us."

Hanwha signed Kim in June 2024 after parting ways with then-manager Choi Won-ho amid a slump, agreeing to a three-year deal worth 2 billion won ($1.49 million) in total.

In his first season, Kim steadied a struggling team, and in 2025 he guided Hanwha to a second-place regular-season finish and a berth in the Korean Series — the club's first postseason appearance in 19 years, since 2006.

This season, however, the team fell short of expectations as its foreign pitchers struggled and key bullpen arms faltered. Through Friday, Hanwha stood ninth in the standings with a record of 57 wins, 82 losses and four draws — a winning percentage of .410 — over 143 games.

The club credited Kim with laying the groundwork for the team's resurgence, noting that he led Hanwha to the Korean Series in 2025 for the first time in 19 years, where the team finished as runner-up. The club said it would move quickly to find his successor.

Kim began his managerial career with the Doosan Bears in 2004 and served as the NC Dinos' inaugural manager from 2011 to 2018. His finest hour came at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where he led the South Korean national baseball team to a gold medal with a perfect nine-win, no-loss record.

Yet a Korean Series championship eluded him throughout his professional managing career.

Kim finished as runner-up in the Korean Series three times with Doosan — in 2005, 2007 and 2008 — and again with NC in 2016. Last year, Hanwha fell to the LG Twins in the series, leaving Kim with five Korean Series runner-up finishes over his career.


betterj@heraldcorp.com