'Choi Jeong is grade C and Heo Kyung Min is grade B...' There are only three A-levels. Will the FA market's all-time main player be transferred?
Nov 02, 2024
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KBO announced the 2025 FA qualification players on the 2nd. There are a total of 30 people. By FA grade, there are 3 A grades, 15 B grades, and 12 C grades. By club, KT has the largest number of five, followed by NC with four, KIA, Doosan, SSG, Lotte, Hanwha, and Kiwoom with three each, Samsung with two and LG with one.
KBO also announced 11 non-FA multi-year contract players, including KIA Choi Hyung-woo, Samsung Koo Ja-wook, LG Kim Hyun-soo, Doosan Jung Soo-bin, KT Ko Young-pyo, Lotte Park Se-woong, and SSG Moon Seung-won, who newly acquired or re-acquired FA qualification requirements by invoking options to extend the contract period, but whose contract period has not ended this year. As a result, the player cannot apply for approval of the 2025 FA qualification, and the FA qualification will be reserved until the end of the contract period.
There are 30 FA qualifiers, but except for Park Kyung-soo, Kim Kang-min and Shim Chang-min, who have already been released from the team or have already announced their retirement, the actual FA is about 27.
When moving to another club, Grade A must pay one compensation player (other than 20 protected players) and 200% of the previous year's annual salary or 300% of the previous year's annual salary to the original team. Grade B has one compensation player (25 protected players) + 100% of the previous year's salary or 200% of the previous year's salary, and grade C has 150% of the previous year's salary without compensation players.
Attention is focusing on what decision Choi Jung, an SSG one-club man, will make in the third FA. Choi Jeong, who remained at 8.6 billion won in four years in 2015, and remained at up to 10.6 billion won in six years in 2019, became the third FA to become C grade. Even if you move to the batting team, you only need to pay 1.5 billion won, which is 150% of the previous year's annual salary, without compensation players.
Since the end of the season, SSG has been in contact with Choi Jung to sign a non-FA multi-year contract before the FA market opens. It is known that it has already offered more than 10 billion won for four years. SSG intends to wrap up before applying for the FA because Choi Jung applies for the FA and if other clubs compete by expressing their intention to recruit him, the ransom may rise further. If Choi Jung applies for FA and comes to the market, he will be able to see a pretty interesting scramble.
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Attention is also focusing on whether Doosan Bears' Huh Kyung-min, who signed a 4+3 year contract four years ago, will apply for FA. Heo Kyung-min, who signed up to 8.5 billion won, finished his first four years this year, and now if he chooses to stay at Doosan, he will receive a total of 2 billion won for three years starting in 2025. Heo Kyung-min, who has still shown good performance with a batting average of 399 percent, 129 hits, seven home runs, 61 RBIs and 69 points in 115 games this season, can declare himself an FA if he feels small for three years and 2 billion won.
Among the starting resources, Choi Won-tae and Um Sang-baek stand out. Um Sang-baek went 13-10 with a 4.88 ERA and Choi Won-tae 9-7 with a 4.26 ERA in this year's regular season.
In this FA market, there are more bullpen resources than starters. Lotte closer Kim Won-joong had 3 wins, 6 losses, 25 saves and an ERA of 3.55 in 56 games this year, while Lotte setup man Koo Seung-min had a 5 wins, 3 losses, 13 holds, and an ERA of 4.84 in 66 games. Hold king Noh Kyung-eun (SSG) will also become an FA. Even though he is 40 years old this year, he recorded an 8-5 record with a 2.90 ERA with 38 holds in 77 games. KIA's Jang Hyun-sik also posted a 3.94 ERA with 5 wins, 4 losses and 16 holds. In addition, Lim Ki-young, Seo Jin-yong, and Kim Kang-ryul will also appear in the FA market.
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The peculiarity is that there are only three A-levels, Choi Won-tae, Kim Won-joong, and Koo Seung-min. Since there are only 20 protected players in Grade A, the batting team will be reluctant to recruit them unless they are A-level players. Grade B has 25 protected players, so it's a little easier to transfer. There are also many players who will be interested in the C grade, including Kim Hun-gon, who played an active role in the postseason, and Kim Sung-wook, Moon Sung-hyun, and Lim Jung-ho.
In 2025, FA-eligible players must apply to the KBO to approve the exercise of FA rights by the 4th, two days or less after the announcement, and KBO will announce the players who exercised FA rights as FA-approved players on the 5th, the day after the application deadline.
FA-approved players can negotiate for player contracts with all clubs (including overseas clubs) from the 6th, the day after the announcement.
◇ List of qualified FA players
A grade (3 players) = Choi Won-tae, Koo Seung-min, Kim Won-joong (pitcher)
Grade B (15 players) = Eom Sang-baek Lim Ki-young Jang Hyun-sik No-kyung is Seo Jin-yong, Jin Hae-soo, Shim Chang-min, Lee Yong-chan (pitcher), Lee Jae-won (catcher), Heo Kyung-min, Ryu Ji-hyuk, Shim Woo-jun, Choi Joo-hwan, Oh Jae-il, Ha Joo-seok (infielder)
Grade C (12 players) = Woo Kyu-min Kim Kang-ryul Lim Jung-ho Moon Sung-hyun (pitcher above) Choi Jeong Jae-ho Seo Geon-chang Park Kyung-soo (infielder) Kim Heon-gon Kim Sung-wook Kim Kang-min Lee Yong-gyu (outfielder)
※A player with FA qualification reserved (a player whose contract will not be terminated in 2024)
=Kim Tae-gun Choi Hyung-woo (KIA), Koo Ja-wook (Samsung), Kim Hyun-soo (LG), Jung Soo-bin (Doosan), Ko Young-pyo (KT), Kim Sung-hyun, Moon Seung-won, Park Jong-hoon, Han Yu-sum (SSG), Park Se-woong (Lotte)
indyk@sportschosun.com
