Contracts for “semi-class” players on the free agent market in the professional baseball league are being delayed. With transferring difficulties due to the rating system introduced three years ago, the team is having difficulty narrowing differences with its original team.
As of Tuesday, there were seven FA contractors. Among them, Hong Kun-hee and Swonju are A-rated. Negotiations between the two, excluding Yang Seok-hwan, who signed early on to remain at the Doosan Bears among the three A-rated FA players, have been stalled. Only three of the seven in the market for C-rated and two of the nine in B-rated failed to find their place for the next season.
Age and performance are hard to explain. Hong was like a gift to Doosan`s bullpen. For the past three years, he played around 60 games a year after switching uniforms with Ryu in a trade. Sovereignty was also a key mound resource for KT Wiz for the past four years, only to falter due to injury last year.
Ironically, it is a “A-class” label that blocks two immediately powerful pitchers in their late 20s and early 30s, which are in their heyday of baseball players. According to the league rules, players other than the 20-member protection list, 200 percent of the previous year’s salary, or 300 percent of the previous year’s salary must be handed over to the original team without compensation players. It is a different situation from B and C grades, which have relatively small compensation.
It is natural considering the purpose of the system. This is because compensation rules were applied to all FA teams before the rating system. This resulted in money being concentrated only on big fish players. The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) introduced the rating system in 2020 to polarize FA teams.
It paid off. In the three years prior to the implementation of the rating system, only four cases of FA transfer were made in Korea, excluding sign-and-trade. The number has increased to 20 over the past three years since the system was revised. A total of 11 players changed their uniforms last winter. 카지노사이트
The problem is A-grade players like Sovereignty and Hong Geon-hee, who are not considered as definite big fish. As chances are slim that they will be transferred after receiving better treatment than their original team, it is difficult to avoid prolonged negotiations. Lee Ji-young was also hamstrung by the compensation rule. Due to her high annual salary (500 million won) in the previous year, she has suffered a lot of bleeding when recruiting, and her late 30s age is another obstacle.