The 2023 season came to a close with the LG Twins winning their first championship in 29 years. MVP Oh Ji-hwan donated a Rolex watch to LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo, and the team celebrated by drinking Awamori shochu, which has been on the shelf since 1995.
After the festivities, it’s time to prepare for the next step. There’s an immediate problem. The second round of the draft is on the 22nd.
A system that was revived this season with the intention of actually leveling the playing field. The LG Twins, with the deepest farm system in baseball, are being targeted by nine teams. We need to reduce prospect leakage as much as possible.
After much deliberation, we cheated a little. It included Oh Ji-hwan, who signed a non-free agent multi-year contract worth a total of 12.4 billion won over six years last January, on its list of approved free agents.
Oh was first eligible for free agency ahead of the 2020 season. He signed a four-year, 4 billion won contract with LG. In the third year of his contract, Oh showed that he had peaked by becoming the first Jamsil shortstop to join the 20-homer, 20-steal club last season. LG was quick to recognize the market. It realized that if Oh became a free agent in a year, there would be teams that would want him. So it quickly pushed for a non-free agent multi-year contract. It was announced with fanfare.
So far, so good. 아톰카지노 도메인
But when Oh filed for free agency, it was a surprise. A non-free agent multi-year contractor filed for free agency? What happened?
The reason is the second round draft. LG admitted it.
Each team must designate 35 protected players before the second draft. Free agents are automatically removed from the list. It’s really hard for a team to pick the 35th or 36th player, and it’s a huge deal to have an extra spot. So we mutually agreed that we would sign him to a big contract anyway, and that we would sign him to a free agent contract.
The core of the problem is that the six-year non-free agent contract didn’t start in January. The two sides agreed, but the contract was never written. The final year, this season, was completed according to the terms of the previous deal.
This means that he will play out his original free agency period and then start a new six-year deal starting in the 2024 season.
Other clubs didn’t expect this to happen, as the non-free agent multi-year contract system is just beginning to take hold. If there was a team that wanted to sign Oh when he became a free agent, LG’s move might seem ridiculous. They got the player early, and they got the advantage in the second round of the draft by claiming him as a free agent.
On the plus side, you could say that LG was smart. It’s not against the rules. Oh had four years of free agency remaining on his contract, so there was no reason to start a new six-year deal early, and the KBO couldn’t force him to sign a non-free agent multi-year contract.
If this sets a precedent, it could be abused in the future. If a team wants to secure a player in his final season of free agency in the season leading up to the secondary draft, they can announce a non-free agent multi-year contract and then file for free agency, as in the case of Oh Ji-Hwan.
Compare this to Kim Tae-gun’s KIA Tigers. KIA also signed Kim to a non-free agent multi-year contract before the end of the regular season. This was also Kim’s second season of free agency. KIA had a tacit agreement with the player and could have saved a spot on the roster by letting him file for free agency.
Ultimately, the KBO needs to close the loophole in the multi-year contract rule to prevent this ridiculous situation from happening again. The non-free agent multi-year contract system is designed to allow clubs to lock up promising talent before they become free agents and develop them into franchise stars.
As “non-free agents,” multi-year contracts should only be signed by players who are eligible to play immediately.