'86 billion → 10.6 billion → 11 billion '38-year-old FA contracts are 2.4 billion more than 10 years ago... Why Upside Down Contracts Were Possible
Nov 07, 2024
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However, Choi Jeong, a franchise star who decided to bury the bones in SSG Landers, was different. The third FA, a four-year contract from the age of 38 next year, will receive the most money than the previous two FA contracts.
On the 6th, Choi Jung signed a four-year contract with SSG, his club, for a total of 11 billion won. The down payment is 3 billion won and the annual salary is 8 billion won. What is even greater is the full guarantee without incentives.
The SSG club met with Choi Jung on the 4th and talked positively. The player wants to proceed with the FA contract, so he will announce it after the FA market opens on the 6th." Choi Jung is the third FA, so it is expected that several teams may rush in because they can be transferred more freely without compensation players, and as a result, SSG set up a negotiating table to sign a multi-year contract as soon as the season ended in order to catch Choi Jung more actively.
As Choi Jung finally remained at SSG, I was curious about the contents of the contract. Like Ryu Hyun-jin, who signed an ultra-long-term contract worth a total of 17 billion won for eight years, he could increase the amount through a long-term contract, or he could extend the contract period to plus alpha with a four-year guarantee. There was speculation that the second FA could exceed four years this time as it was a long-term contract of six years. However, the contract period was four years. Instead, the amount was full. All of them were guaranteed 11 billion won.
Choi Jung-eun signed a four-year contract worth a total of 8.6 billion won in 2015, his first FA at the age of 28. Dividing this into four years, the average amount is 2.15 billion won. And he became the second FA after the 2018 season, signing a six-year contract of up to 10.6 billion won, opening the 32-year-old season. The average amount per year was 1.76 billion won, which was 390 million won less than the contract four years ago. It is an amount that takes into account the decline in grades due to the age.
However, the average amount of this contract is 2.75 billion won. It is an average of 600 million won more than the first FA 10 years ago. The first FA was also a four-year contract, so the total amount alone is 2.4 billion won. The 38-year-old's ransom is much higher than the one he was when he was a young 28. The FA contract is about contracting based on future value, but it can be seen as a little incomprehensible amount. Of course, it is different from the prices of 10 years ago. Still, it is difficult to understand that there is a total difference of 2.4 billion won and an average of 600 million won per year.
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In addition, in terms of performance over the past four years, Choi Jeong has a batting average of 283, 507 hits, 127 homers and 381 RBIs in 512 games. During this period, he was the No. 1 home run and No. 1 RBI.
Recently, mega contracts worth more than 10 billion won have frequently been made for big fish. As the popularity of professional baseball has increased, clubs have also opened their wallets to reinforce their power, which has led to a series of surprising contracts as they have been overheated to catch good FA. When comparing Choi Jeong's performance with a contract that has recently been said 'eat and run', I think that Choi Jeong's contract is better.
In the first FA and the second FA, there was no grade system, so a compensation player was needed when moving, but this time, there were no compensation players because it was grade C, so SSG had to spend more money to catch Choi Jeong.
Choi Jung made a bigger contract than 10 years ago, setting a precedent that he can now sign a contract worth 10 billion won even in his late 30s. Age is now just a real number.
indyk@sportschosun.com
