The average annual salary of the 10 million viewers is also the highest ever, how much is it? It's not KIA Samsung, the No. 1 player in the team's annual salary?

Mar 05, 2025

KIA Kim Do-young hits a practice game between KIA and Hiroshima at Kozakin Stadium in Okinawa, Japan, on the 22nd. Okinawa (Japan) = Reporter Heo Sang-wook wook@sportschosun.com /2025.02.22/

In 2025, the average annual salary of 519 KBO league players (excluding new and foreign players) was 160.71 million won.

This is a 3.7 percent increase from last year's average annual salary of 154.95 million won. This is the highest average annual salary in the KBO league ever.

▶KIA's Kim Do-young ranks first in annual salary increase rate

KIA Kim Do-young, who won the 2024 KBO regular season MVP, raised his annual salary vertically from 100 million won to 500 million won and recorded the highest increase rate in 2025 with a 400% annual salary increase compared to last year. At the same time, Lee Jung-hoo's highest annual salary in his fourth year in 2020 was well over 39 million won. Kim Do-young's 400% increase rate is tied for 11th in the KBO league's annual salary increase rate. Excluding FA and non-FA multi-year contracts, it is the third highest increase rate after 455.6% (27 million won → 150 million won) by Ha Jae-hoon (SK) in 2020 and 418.5% (27 million won → 140 million won) by Cho Hyung-joon (KT) in 2021, and the same as Ryu Hyun-jin (20 million won → 100 million won) recorded in 2007.

A game between the Doosan Bears and the Lotte Giants at Sunmarin Stadium in Miyazaki, Japan, on the 2nd. Doosan Bears' Kim Taek-yeon is pitching hard. Miyazaki(Japan) = Reporter Park Jae-man pjm@sportschosun.com/2025.03.02

▶Doosan Kim Taek-yeon, highest salary in his second year, Kang Baek-ho, Choi Hyung-woo, Choi Jeong, highest annual salary

Doosan's Kim Taek-yeon, who won the 2024 KBO Rookie of the Year award, tied the highest salary in the second year recorded by KT So Hyung-joon in 2021 with an annual salary of 140 million won. At that time, So Hyung-joon also won the KBO Rookie of the Year award in 2020, the previous season.

KT Kang Baek-ho recorded his highest annual salary in his eighth year, exceeding Kim Hye-sung's 650 million won in 2024 with an annual salary of 700 million won. SSG Choi Jeong, who signed an FA contract ahead of the season, also recorded the highest salary in his 21st year with an annual salary of 1.7 billion won.

Choi Hyung-woo, who boasts the longest annual leave among his players registered this year in his 24th year in the KBO League, also broke the annual salary record. Choi Hyung-woo easily exceeded Lee Ho-joon's 750 million won in 2017 with an annual salary of 1 billion won.

Kim Kwang-hyun. Photo courtesy = SSG Landers

▶SSG Kim Kwang-hyun tops 2025 KBO League annual salary

Kim Kwang-hyun ranked in the KBO League 'Annual Salary King' with an annual salary of 3 billion won in 2025.

According to the contract, the increase was the highest among registered players in 2025, with an annual salary of 2 billion won from 1 billion won in 2024. Lee Dae-ho (Lotte) in 2019 and Ryu Hyun-jin's 2.5 billion won records in 2024, which were the highest salaries in their 19th year.

Samsung's Koo Ja-wook, KT's Ko Young-pyo and Hanwha's Ryu Hyun-jin are tied for second place in annual salary, with Koo Ja-wook having the highest salary among fielders.

Kim Kwang-hyun, Ko Young-pyo and Ryu Hyun-jin were ranked as the top three highest-paid pitchers, followed by Koo Ja-wook, SSG Choi Jeong, who recorded 1.7 billion won, and Doosan Yang Eui-ji, who recorded 1.6 billion won, were listed in the top three.

Meanwhile, the highest-paid players for each club were four pitchers (KT, SSG, Lotte, Hanwha) and six fielders (KIA, Samsung, LG, Doosan, NC, and Kiwoom).

In a practice game between KT and SSG at Kushikawa Baseball Stadium in Okinawa, Japan on the 28th, KT Rojas hits a solo home run and celebrates with third base coach Choi Man-ho in the top of the fifth inning. Okinawa (Japan) = Reporter Heo Sang-wook wook@sportschosun.com /2025.02.28/

▶KBO League's sixth season KT Rojas tops foreign player annual salary

KT Rojas, who returned to the KBO League last season and won the Golden Glove in the Outfielder category, ranked first in foreign player annual salary (including down payment) with an annual salary of $1.8 million. Nail, who led Kia to victory in the 2024 season, and Herredia of SSG tied for second with a total of $1.6 million. Among the 30 foreign players, U.S. citizenship accounted for the largest portion with 20. Five Venezuelans, two Dominican Republics, and one player each from Haiti, Cuba and Panama.

The practice game between SSG and LG scheduled to be held at Kinosa Stadium in Okinawa, Japan, on the 4th was canceled due to rain. LG Shin Min-jae is talking to the SSG squad. Okinawa (Japan) = Reporter Heo Sang-wook wook@sportschosun.com /2025.03.04/

▶SSG, the total annual salary of the team and the maximum average annual salary

SSG recorded the highest increase, with its average annual salary increasing by 30.3% compared to last year. According to the high increase rate, the total amount was 11.726 billion won, the only team among the 10 clubs to exceed the total amount of 10 billion won. The average annual salary was also 221.25 million won, the only team among the 10 clubs to exceed the average annual salary of 200 million won.

Samsung followed SSG with a 23.4% increase in total of KRW 9.942 billion (average KRW 184.11 million), Lotte with a 3.4% increase, with a total of KRW 9.466 billion (average KRW 175.3 million), and KIA with a 25.5% increase, with a total of KRW 9.423 billion (average KRW 177.79 million).

The Samsung Lions' spring camp training was held at Onnason Akama Stadium in Okinawa, Japan, on the 21st. Kim Ji-chan is doing batting training. Okinawa (Japan) = Reporter Heo Sang-wook wook@sportschosun.com /2025.02.21/

▶ The oldest Samsung Oh Seung-hwan, the youngest Kiwoom Kim Seo-joon, the oldest Samsung Reyes, Hanwha Ponce, the shortest Samsung Kim Sung-yoon, and Kim Ji-chan

The oldest player in the KBO League in 2025 is Samsung's Oh Seung-hwan, who is 42 years, 6 months, and 16 days old. The youngest player is Kim Seo-joon of Kiwoom at 18 years, 1 month, and 19 days (as of January 31st, the deadline for registration of players).

Along with Samsung Reyes, who was the longest-serving player in the KBO League last year, Hanwha's new foreign pitcher Ponce was registered as the longest-serving player in 2025 at 1m98. As in last year, the shortest players were Kim Sung-yoon and Kim Ji-chan from the 1m63 duo Samsung.

This article was translated by Naver AI translator.