Oh, that's dangerous. 8.8 billion → 11.7 billion won skyrocketed, and should we pay the second luxury tax ever since we didn't catch an external FA?
Mar 05, 2025
|
KBO announced the registration status of KBO League players for the 2025 season on the 5th. The part that drew the most attention was the annual salary. SSG pitcher Kim Kwang-hyun was named the "2025 season 'annual salary king'. Kim Kwang-hyun became the highest-paid player in the KBO league with an annual salary of 3 billion won, and jumped 2 billion won from 1 billion won in 2024, the highest increase among registered players in 2025. In addition, 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.
SSG, its team, recorded the highest increase rate, with its average annual salary increasing by 30.3% compared to last year. According to the high increase rate, it was the only club among the 10 clubs to exceed 10 billion won, and the average annual salary was 221.25 million won, the only club among the 10 clubs to exceed 200 million won in average annual salary.
It's an overwhelming figure. Of course, the final annual salary expenditure may change depending on incentives after the season is over, but SSG is the only team that has exceeded 10 billion and 11 billion won in pre-season contracts.
The Samsung Lions, the second-largest in the team's annual salary, narrowly stopped at 10 billion won with 9.942 billion won, while the KIA Tigers, which had the biggest concern about salary cap as the winning team last year, ranked fourth with 9.423 billion won, slightly less than the third-place Lotte Giants (9.466 billion won).
|
The KBO board of directors revised the salary cap system on July 31 last year. The amount was raised from the current KRW 11.426.38 billion to KRW 13.71165 billion, a 20% increase, and the official name is not 'Salary Cap', but 'competitive Equilibrium Tax'. There was opposition from some clubs, but the amount was raised as a number of clubs expressed the need to supplement the system in consideration of inflation and the size of player contracts.
SSG has already exceeded the salary cap as of last year with the team's annual salary alone. Since the salary cap is based on the top 40 players in the team's annual salary, it is difficult to simply compare the entire team's annual salary with one-on-one. However, it is true that it is a crisis that the salary cap could explode.
Once Kim Kwang-hyun returned to Korea ahead of the 2022 season, he signed a four-year, 15.1 billion won contract, which was a non-FA multi-year contract, not an FA at the time. He drove a whopping 8.1 billion won in his first year's salary, and his second and third year's salary was relatively small considering the salary cap. And this year, the last year of the contract, 3 billion won was concentrated, which meant a direct hit on the salary cap.
|
SSG could not catch a single external FA for fear of overflowing salary cap. I felt the need for some players, but I felt a lot of pressure for salary cap. Without catching an external FA, he gave KRW 3 billion in down payment to Choi Jeong, an internal FA, and KRW 300 million in down payment to Noh Kyung-eun. In addition to this, individual incentives, including FA contract players, can increase the amount significantly.
SSG exceeds 14.7 billion won by adding a minimum down payment of 3 billion won to 11.726 billion won by simple calculation. Of course, there are additional variables. If there are any vacancies or changes in the number of players, such as trades or releases, during the season, the salary may vary in various ways, so we cannot guarantee unconditionally. However, it is true that it is most likely to overflow.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
