One of the biggest offseason issues for Hanwha, who narrowly finished as runners-up in the Korean Series this year, is the composition of foreign players. This year's team ace and league's top pitcher, Cody Ponce (31), is likely to leave the team, leaving them in dilemma. Ponce has changed dramatically . Numerous MLB scouts have been watching Ponce, and the market atmosphere has heated up to the point where a bidding war has erupted to sign him. Hanwha, believing it would be difficult to renew with Ponce, has been listing new foreign players from mid-season , but whether they can acquire players of Ponce's caliber remains uncertain. That's why the player who draws even more attention than Ponce, who 'will leave anyway,' is Ryan Weiss (29), who, alongside Ponce, delivered the league's strongest one-two punch this year. He is also a player. This season, Weiss played 1,782/3 innings in 30 games, posting an outstanding record of 16 wins, 5 losses, a 2.87 ERA, and 207 strikeouts, but since Ponce was overshadowed, he was struggling with how to treat him. Weiss also attracted attention from MLB scouts, showing his power this year by recording 21 quality starts (at least 6 innings pitched and 3 earned runs or fewer) in 30 games, with fastballs reaching the mid-150 km/h range and a sharp sweeper . On the 1st, the statistics site 'FanGraph' reported, "Weiss showed very powerful pitching in the latter half of the 2025 season, especially when pitching in the bullpen during the postseason," and MLB teams have also It is known that they focused more on the bullpen than on starters and observed Weiss. For Hanwha, if Weiss, following Fonce, also leaves the team, it would literally become an emergency, meaning the duo with 33 wins this year would simply leave. Unlike Ponce, Major League teams are interested in Weiss, who is not a starter but a bullpen, naturally has a lower guaranteed salary, and even if Weiss, who has no MLB experience, were ambitious, there is hope that he would not go through a split contract. When he joined, Weiss signed a six-week contract worth $100,000 (about 140 million won), but after signing a formal deal, his salary increased significantly to $260,000 for the remainder of the season ($210,000 guaranteed, $50,000 incentives), and this year he re-signed for a total of $950,000 ($750,000 guaranteed, $200,000 incentives). If all incentives are met, there are predictions that if Weiss re-signs with Hanwha, he could earn a salary in the mid-$1 million range, which is almost close to 2 billion won.
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