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Bottom of the order, but near the top in production: How nine-hole hitters are impacting the KBO this year

Published: 14 Apr. 2026, 13:39

KT Wiz's shortstop and No. 9 batter Lee Gang-min poses after a timely hit on March 28. [YONHAP]

In baseball, the ninth spot in the batting order, or the nine-hole, is usually reserved for the weakest hitter on offense because it gets the fewest chances to bat.

However, in the KBO this year, these are not just easy outs at the end of the lineup. Nine-hole hitters have been torching pitchers so far this season and punching far above their usual weight.

In the KBO last season, leadoff hitters came to the plate 4.75 times per game, while the No. 9 hitter batted only 3.87 times per game on average. That accounted for a difference of nearly one plate appearance per game.

This is also why pitchers used to bat ninth in MLB's National League before the designated hitter was adopted. The No. 9 spot today is often filled by players such as shortstops, catchers, or center fielders, for whom defense matters more than hitting.

This season, however, No. 9 hitters are swinging anything but ordinary bats.

Looking at batting average by lineup spot among starters, the No. 9 spot, at .286 as of Monday, ranks behind only the No. 2 spot at .307, No. 3 at .304 and No. 5 at .299. Its OPS, also known as on-base plus slugging, is also the fifth-highest at .759.

What's behind this surprising end-of-lineup production? Young and less-established players in particular are mashing it out of the No. 9 spot.

Notably, KT Wiz shortstop Lee Gang-min, the 19-year-old who joined the team this year, is on fire. Lee is batting .345 with a .379 on-base percentage. He earned a starting role because of his defense, but he is also producing more than expected at the plate, already being mentioned as a rookie of the year candidate.

NC Dinos' center fielder and No. 9 hitter Choi Jeong-won, left, slides into home plate during a game against the LG Twins in June 2025 [NEWS1]

Likewise, NC Dinos’ Choi Jeong-won, 26, won the competition for the team’s center field job. He lacks power, but his speed and reliable defense earned him a starting role, and now his bat is on fire as well. Choi ranks second on the team in batting average at .368, behind Park Min-woo. After finishing fourth in stolen bases last season with 30, Choi is now tied for first in the stolen base race with four as his playing time increases.

For the Hanwha Eagles, shortstop Sim Woo-jun has also shown some noteworthy early performances. Sim is batting .300 through six games since Opening Day. His career high for home runs in a season is six, set in 2021, but he has already launched two this year and added two doubles. He has shaken off last season’s struggles, when he hit .231 with a .587 OPS in his first year after arriving as a free agent. For the last two games, with Sim sidelined by an adductor injury, backup shortstop Lee Do-yun has taken over the No. 9 spot without missing a beat. Against the Doosan Bears in Jamsil on Saturday, he went 1-for-3 with two walks. Then on Sunday, he went 3-for-3, reaching base three times in back-to-back games.

Some players seem to be built for the No. 9 position. Lotte Giants shortstop Jeon Min-jae hit just .083, going 1-for-12, in the No. 8 spot this year. But in the No. 9 spot, he hit .400, going 4-for-10. Jeon also hit far better in the No. 9 spot last year at .395 than he did in the No. 8 spot at .286.

Hwang Seong-bin, who is often used as a table-setter because of his speed, has also been slotted into the No. 9 spot frequently this year. He is 4-for-10 there. Despite his team, the Lotte Giants, losing to the SSG Landers in Incheon on Sunday, Hwang notched hits in the third and fourth innings, leading to scoring chances for the team.

Lotte Giants' No.9 batter Hwang Seong-bin poses after a timely hit during a game against the SSG Landers on April 5. [YONHAP]

Other teams also use the No. 9 spot strategically.

One of them is the Samsung Lions. Manager Park Jin-man put Kim Ji-chan in the No. 9 spot in the season-opening two-game series. Rather than place him next to Kim Seong-yun, another speedy hitter with strong contact skills, he separated them into the No. 9 and No. 2 spots to leave room to make the most of their speed.

But when Lee Jae-hyeon and Kim Young-woong, who had both been used in the leadoff spot, struggled, Park moved Kim Ji-chan up to the top of the order and then pushed Lee Jae-hyeon and the catchers, whose defensive workload is heavy, down to No. 9.

Veteran Kang Min-ho, in particular, batted ninth for the first time in 17 years against the KT Wiz in Suwon on Saturday, going 3-for-4. The Eagles and the Lions are the only teams whose No. 9 hitters have both an on-base percentage and a slugging percentage above .400.

The Kia Tigers have a similar approach to Samsung's. The team also sometimes places a high on-base hitter in the No. 9 spot rather than the No. 8 spot. That way, if the No. 9 hitter gets on base, the chances of scoring rise because the order then turns over to the No. 1 and No. 2 hitters. The Tigers use Asian quota infielder Jarryd Dale in the No. 7 or No. 9 spot. Dale has recorded a hit in all seven games he has played this season and is batting .333.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY KIM HYO-KYOUNG [[email protected]]