Owen White’s Impressive Return: How He Dominated in His KBO Debut Against KT

Daniel Kim 2026.05.17 Views

Translation result

[MyDaily — Suwon correspondent Kim Jin-seong] Owen White of the Hanwha Eagles returned with an impressive outing, but Kang Baek-ho’s seven-RBI barrage stole the headlines.

On May 15, Hanwha closed out the six-week injury-replacement contract with reliever Jack Cushing. The club chose not to extend Cushing’s deal and activated White for the May 16 road game in Suwon against the KT Wiz. White had left his March 31 debut in Daejeon after just 2 1/3 innings due to a hamstring injury and spent the intervening weeks rehabbing.

With White sidelined, Hanwha leaned on domestic starters while Cushing handled late-inning duties. Though labeled a closer, Cushing often pitched multiple innings and entered games with big leads, functioning more like a traditional shutdown reliever. Hanwha parted ways on good terms with Cushing, praising his team-first approach, and now hopes White will help stabilize both the rotation and the bullpen.

White needs to hold down a rotation spot alongside Wilkel Hernandez, Ryu Hyun-jin, Wang Yen-cheng and Jung Woo-ju. In that context, his return — effectively a true debut — was encouraging. Even without Ahn Hyun-min, White produced dominant innings against a well-constructed KT lineup.

White picked up his delayed first KBO win, going 6 1/3 innings, allowing three hits, striking out four, walking one and yielding two runs (one earned). What stood out was the variety: KT’s scouting report showed he used seven different pitches. His four-seam reached 153 km/h, while his two-seam topped out at 150 km/h.

He mixed 39 four-seamers, 19 sweepers, nine curveballs, seven two-seamers, six cutters, four forkballs and one slider. In spring-camp exhibitions his four-seam sat around 150 km/h, but it ticked up in this return. He’s a pitcher who relies on movement, so once he adjusts to ABS, he could regularly turn in high-quality starts.

In the second inning, a cutter to leadoff batter Sam Hilliard turned into an infield hit toward second. White then made a wild pickoff throw to first, but with a runner on second and nobody out he settled down and attacked the heart of the order. He used fastballs to induce a foul popup to first and a grounder to second from Heo Kyung-min, Jang Seong-woo and Kim Min-hyuk. While some pitches rode, he also used the high zone effectively.

He conserved energy against the lower third of the order by leaning on his sweeper and curve, and that approach paid dividends as the lineup turned over. Facing power hitter Jang Seong-woo in the fifth, White attacked low with a heavy four-seam to induce a weak out and kept changing his patterns well. In the seventh, with one out and a runner on first, he appeared to lose a bit of juice and issued a straight pitch walk to Jang Seong-woo, but overall his outing was strong.

Hanwha still has questions around Hernandez’s consistency. If White can lead the rotation alongside Ryu and Wang, the staff will be in much better shape. Kang Baek-ho’s offensive eruption was the game’s headline, but from a long-term standpoint, White’s healthy return may be the bigger takeaways for the club.

After the game, White said, “I think it was a good win for both me and the team. I attacked hitters to induce contact, and the defense helped a lot, which made the win possible. I’m grateful to my teammates. I trusted catcher Heo In-seo and threw to his calls. I’d watched his recent games and felt his pitch-calling was strong, so I put full trust in him and it paid off. Honestly, I would have liked to go through the seventh, but the team had a plan, and I felt comfortable trusting the relievers coming in.”

White added, “The rehab process wasn’t difficult; I trusted the club’s program. I was also moved when teammates wrote ‘24’ on their caps — that made me want to return quickly and help the team. My first win was a bit delayed because of the injury, but I’ll work to bring many more victories to this club.”