The stove league of professional baseball is nearing an end. While some stars have made big contracts in the FA market, others have managed to renew their contracts with small contracts.
NC announced on the 16th, "I signed a two-year contract with outfielder Kim Sung-wook (31), who is a free agent (FA), for a maximum of 300 million won. The details of the contract are 50 million won in down payment, 200 million won in total annual salary, and 50 million won in total options."토토사이트
With Kim Sung-wook renewing his contract with NC, there are only two left in the FA market: right-handed pitchers Lee Yong-chan and Moon Sung-hyun. At the beginning of the stove league, a series of large contracts surprised fans, but as the end of the stove league approaches, players who have not found their team continue to renew their contracts for a small amount of money.
Woo Kyu-min (KT, two-year total of 700 million won) became the main character of the first FA, followed by Choi Jung renewing his contract with SSG for four years and 11 billion won. Since then, a series of large contracts have continued, including Shim Woo-joon (Hanwha, five-year, seven-billion won), Um Sang-baek (Hanwha, seven-billion won, four-year, seven-year, seven-billion won), Huh Kyung-min (KT, four-year, four-year, five-billion won), Koo Seung-min (Lotte, two-year, two-year, two-billion won), Jang Hyun-sik (LG, five-year, two-plus-year, two-billion won), and Noh Kyung-eun (SSG, two-year, two-plus-year, two-billion won).
The quiet stove league marked the end of Choi Won-tae's four-year move to Samsung for 7 billion won after the contracts of Lim Jung-ho (NC, three-year total of 1.2 billion won) and Kim Heon-gon (Samsung, two-year and 600 million won) were announced. As Kim Kang-ryul (3+1 year and 1.4 billion won) also moved to LG and Ryu Ji-hyuk (Samsung, four-year and 2.6 billion won) and Lim Ki-young (KIA, three-year and 1.5 billion won) renewed their contracts, the contract of FA players in 2024 ended.
The five players, Ha Joo-seok, Seo Geon-chang, Kim Sung-wook, Moon Sung-hyun, and Lee Yong-chan, all failed to find their teams until the sun went down. The players, who needed to find their teams faster because their spring camp schedules were earlier than usual, began to accept contracts with their original teams by 2025.
First of all, Ha Joo-seok renewed his contract with Hanwha for a total of 110 million won a year on the 8th, followed by Seo Geon-chang, who signed a 1+1 year and 500 million won with KIA on the 9th. And as Kim Sung-wook also renewed his contract on the 16th, the FA market began to be almost over.
There were many evaluations that there were not many big fish players in the FA market this winter. This is because clubs often tie up key players with non-FA multi-year contracts in advance. Nevertheless, players who are competing for recruitment succeeded in signing large-scale contracts that exceeded expectations. In particular, Choi Jung, Um Sang-baek, Choi Won-tae, Jang Hyun-sik and Shim Woo-joon won large-scale contracts worth more than 5 billion won. The total amount of contracts signed by these players is 41.4 billion won, and the total amount of FA contracts signed by 2024, including all FA contracts that do not reach 5 billion won, amounts to 58 billion won.
However, a chilly winter awaited Ha afterwards. Ha had to renew his contract with Hanwha for a total of 110 million won (approx. In fact, the contract terms are not much different from the fact that he did not apply for an FA. Seo Geon-chang and Kim Seong-wook, although they were also C-grade FA players, were shunned by the other teams and had to renew their contracts with their original teams.
The situation is not much different for Lee Yong-chan (B grade) and Moon Sung-hyun (C grade), who remain in the market. It is highly likely that transfers will not be easy as most clubs have completed their plans for the 2025 season. Attention is focusing on how the winter season, which is warm for some but cold for others, will come to an end ahead of the opening of the season.