In the FA market last year, the catcher was gold. A great deal of fish poured in all at once. Doosan and Yang Eui-ji signed a contract worth up to 15.2 billion won for 4+2 years, while Lotte and Yoo Kang-nam signed a four-year contract worth 8 billion won. LG, which missed Yoo Kang-nam, hired Park Dong-won for a four-year deal worth 6.5 billion won, and NC, which let Yang Eui-ji go, hired Park Se-hyuk for a four-year deal worth 4.6 billion won.
There are two catchers in the FA market this year. They are SSG Kim Min-sik and Kiwoom Lee Ji-young. Kim Min-sik is rated C without a compensation player as the first FA. Lee Ji-young reacquired the second FA and is rated B with compensation players. SSG and Kim Min-sik have met several times and are negotiating. An agreement has not yet been reached. However, SSG offered Kim Min-sik a multi-year contract at the end of last season, and there is a behind-the-scenes story of Kim Min-sik rejecting it.
SSG, which won the 2022 season title, offered a multi-year contract as a non-FA to Kim Min-sik. The offer was worth about 2.5 billion won (approx. However, Kim Min-sik rejected the offer. He decided to become an FA after this season and get evaluated in the market. SSG and Kim Min-sik re-signed for 150 million won (approx. Kim Min-sik, who rejected the offer to sign a multi-year contract with SSG, is now an FA and is negotiating. 안전놀이터
Things have changed over the course of a year. Kim played in 122 games this year, recording 218 homers, 34 RBIs, 28 runs scored and an OPS of .618. He did not perform as well as expected in the season ahead of the FA. His overall performance was 227 with 24 homers, 214 RBIs and 229 runs scored in 821 games.
It seems that there is little demand from other teams that want to reinforce their catcher. Prior to this season, LG, Doosan, Lotte, and NC each recruited FA catcher. KIA signed a multi-year, three-year, non-FA contract of 2.5 billion won with Kim Tae-gun, who was acquired through a trade in October. Prior to the 2022 season, Hanwha’s Choi Jae-hoon, KT’s Jang Sung-woo, and Samsung’s Kang Min-ho signed FA contracts. For the time being, catcher resources have not been released in the FA market, and eight teams except SSG and Kiwoom are not worried about catcher Debs.
SSG needs Kim Min-sik. Veteran catcher Lee Jae-won volunteered to release him to the club, saying he wanted to find a new opportunity after the end of the season. Lee Jae-won was excluded from the list of players withheld, but SSG recruited two promising catchers, Park Dae-on and Shin Bum-soo, in the second draft. It has strengthened its depth for internal competition with rookie Cho Hyung-woo.
“Kim Min-sik did a good job last year and contributed to the overall win. So he offered a multi-year contract last year, but he refused. He offered an amount, and only Yes or No was left,” an SSG source said. The club made the final offer, which it could offer, and it seems that the player will accept it or not. The 2.5 billion won, which it rejected last year, has already passed. SSG’s offer is known to be a smaller amount. Finally, some adjustments are possible, but the club’s offer will not likely change much.