The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) announced the current status of the 2023 city certificate annual salary.
Amidst various eye-catching topics, Doosan Yang Eui-ji, who set the record for the highest ransom price (15.2 billion won), drew attention because he did not reveal his name in the annual salary ranking table.
Yang Eui-ji’s annual salary for the 2023 season announced by the KBO was only (?) 300 million won. Why did such distorted results appear?
According to the salary status of the league players announced by the KBO on the 7th (based on contracts until February 27), the average annual salary of 506 players from 10 clubs, excluding newcomers and foreign players, was tallied at 146.48 million won. This is an amount reduced by about 4% from 152.59 million won in the 2022 season, which was recorded as the highest average annual salary ever.
▲ Hanwha records the highest average annual salary increase rate of 49.9% for affiliated players
Hanwha’s team average annual salary for the 2023 season (excluding rookies and foreign players) is KRW 135.71 million. It increased by 45.19 million won from 90.52 million won in the previous season, showing the highest rate of increase (49.9%) among the 10 clubs. Hanwha’s average annual salary increase is interpreted as the result of active reinforcement of power through FA contracts such as Chae Eun-seong, Lee Tae-yang, and Oh Seon-jin in the 2023 season. Lotte posted an increase of 24.6% to 141.38 million won, an increase of 27.96 million won from the previous season’s average annual salary of 113.42 million won, ranking second after Hanwha.
Regarding the average salary increase rate of the top 28 players by club based on KBO league entry registration standards (excluding foreign players), Hanwha (58.6%) and Lotte (24.5%) ranked first and second, respectively.
▲ SSG, team average annual salary of 175.59 million won… Highest among 10 clubs
SSG, which achieved the combined championship last year, recorded an average annual salary of 175.59 million won, ranking first in the team average annual salary following last year. It is a 35.1% decrease from last season’s 270.44 million won, but it still pays the highest annual salary among the 10 clubs. Samsung ranked second after SSG with an average annual salary of 163.41 million won. The combined average annual salary of the top 28 players per club, which is based on the number of registered KBO league entries, also recorded the highest for SSG at 309.57 million won.
▲ Hanwha Chae Eun-seong, showing the highest annual salary increase amount and increase rate in the 2023 season Chae Eun-seong,
who transferred from LG to Hanwha as a FA, recorded the highest annual salary increase compared to the previous year. The contract was completed with 1.8 billion won, up 1.52 billion won from 280 million won last year. The increase rate is also 542.9%, reaching the highest level in the 2023 season. Through this annual salary contract, Chae Eun-seong’s annual salary was recorded as the third highest increase in KBO League history, following Hanyu Island (1233.3%) and Koo Ja-wook (594.4%) in the 2022 season.
▲ Kiwoom Lee Jeong-hoo, the highest annual salary record march Lee
Jung-hoo, who has been in his 7th year since joining, will receive the highest annual salary this season. It is 1.1 billion won, twice as much as Kiwoom Kim Ha-seong (550 million won in 2020), who was the highest annual salary in the previous 7 years. Since 2019, when he was in his third year, Lee Jung-hoo has recorded the highest annual salary ever, and has continued to set a new record for the highest annual salary for five consecutive years until this year.
▲ Lotte Park Se-woong, the highest paid pitcher, Samsung Koo Ja-wook batter
The highest-paid pitcher is Park Se-woong of Lotte. Park Se-woong signed a non-FA multi-year contract with an annual salary of 1.5 billion won, and was counted as the highest-paid player in the pitching category this year and among all 10-year players. The highest-paid hitter is Samsung’s Koo Ja-wook, who receives 2 billion won this season.
Interesting is the salary of some players.
Yang Eui-ji, who signed a FA contract with Doosan, signed the largest contract ever with 15.2 billion won in 4+2 years. However, he did not make it to the salary rankings this season.
Eui-ji Yang’s annual salary this season is 300 million won. Although it is twice the average, it is unbelievable that it is the salary of the player with the highest ransom.
It is a distorted structure created by the celery cap.
From this season, all 10 clubs are affected by the salary cap. I had to lower my salary this season somehow.
As a result, the annual salary of Yang Eui-ji, who signed the highest contract of 15.2 billion won, was registered as 300 million won.
Even within the top 5 in Doosan’s annual salary, Yang Eui-ji could not be named.
It is to reduce the season salary to the minimum by giving a large down payment or adjusting the annual salary according to the annual leave.
I managed to pass this season, but it may be affected from next season. Eui-ji Yang’s annual salary will inevitably rise in the future, and accordingly, the salary process, such as recruiting a free agent, may not go smoothly.
Even if Doosan tries to recruit another free agent, it may be difficult to achieve its goal if Yang Eui-ji’s annual salary increase affects it.
SSG Kim Gwang-hyun, who finished second with a total ransom of 15.1 billion won, is only second in the team in terms of salary this season. The annual salary was reported as 1 billion won.
SSG already gave Kim Gwang-hyun an annual salary of 8.1 billion won last year to avoid the salary cap. For this reason, it tried to reduce the annual salary burden by tying key players into multi-year contracts.토토사이트
In the future, the difference between the official KBO announcement and the actual salary will inevitably appear. The distortions created by the salary cap are expected to affect overall player salaries.
The salary cap was more powerful than anyone thought. Each club has shown a movement to avoid only paying the fine but avoiding the rookie nomination right being pushed back.
Hanwha and Lotte, which had not invested much in salary, made large-scale investments last winter, but now the two clubs are forced to consider the salary cap.
It remains to be seen what effect the salary cap, which was more powerful than expected, will have in the future.