'28.5 Billion Storm' FA Market Inflation Is Unusual...How much should Lotte give to the "irreplaceable" bullpen duo
'28.5 Billion Storm' FA Market Inflation Is Unusual...How much should Lotte give to the "irreplaceable" bullpen duo
Blog Article
The market is overheating unexpectedly. The appropriate price has become useless as a result of the hyperinflation in the market. The Lotte Giants are agonizing over how much to invest in the bullpen duo Kim Won-joong and Koo Seung-min at a time when they have to focus on internal crackdowns.
This year's FA market has been filled with five contracts until the 8th, three days after its opening on the 6th, and a total of 28.5 billion won poured into the market like a storm. KT and C-grade pitcher Woo Kyu-min signed a two-year contract worth 700 million won (200 million won in down payment, 400 million won in annual salary, and 100 million won in options), marking the first time in the FA market this year.
Since then, SSG and Choi Jung, who made an agreement in a big frame and announced the "signal notice," have signed a four-year contract worth 11 billion won (3 billion won in down payment, 8 billion won in annual salary). It was a full guarantee contract without incentives. After completing the FA contract for four years and 8.6 billion won in 2014 and six years and 10.6 billion won in 2018, Choi Jung also signed a large contract in the third FA, recording a cumulative total of 30.2 billion won in FA contracts, to rise to the top of the cumulative total of FA contracts.
The contracts between Woo and Choi were all highly anticipated. Since then, shocking news has been reported one after another. For the third consecutive year, Hanwha has shown extensive performance by recruiting outside free agents. Hanwha, which has been actively involved in recruiting Chae Eun-seong (9 billion won for six years) in 2022 and An Chi-hong (4 + 72 billion won for two years) in 2023, has fully booked two players, the limit of outside recruitment, just three days after its opening this year as well.
He signed a four-year maximum contract of 5 billion won (4.2 billion won in guaranteed amount and 800 million won in incentives) with shortstop Shim Woo-joon on Thursday last week, and signed a four-year maximum contract of 7.8 billion won (deposit of 3.4 billion won, total annual salary of 3.25 billion won, and incentive of 1.15 billion won) with pitcher Um Sang-baek on the following day. Both players, who belonged to KT, wore Hanwha uniforms. And both players signed a price that exceeded the expected price.
Hanwha entered the FA market with clear goals of strengthening the infield defense and center line and strengthening the starting pitching staff, and drove like a storm. Two players were recruited because they needed to, but due to Hanwha's investment, inflation in the FA market this year was inevitable. The appropriate price became useless and the market price was set by the size of the contract between Shim Woo-joon and Um Sang-baek. This is inevitable due to the nature of the FA market, where the supply is less than the demand, where thirsty people are forced to find a well.
Now, 15 of the 20 FA players are left. And Lotte had two of the three A-list FA players, Kim Won-joong and Koo Seung-min. And they are indispensable to Lotte right now.
Kim Won-joong and Koo Seung-min can be seen as the most successful bullpen duo in the history of Lotte. Kim Won-joong made 132 saves and Koo recorded 121 holds overall. He holds the club's record of most saves and most holds, respectively. The reason why Lotte failed to stamp the seal quickly despite having such a historic bullpen duo and being essential players is that their records for this season were not very good right now.
Kim won three games and six losses with 25 saves and an earned run average of 3.55 in 56 games this year. Koo pitched in 66 games, recording 5 wins and three losses with 13 holds and an earned run average of 4.84. Kim was left disappointed by the severe turbulence in late July, when the ranking battle was in full swing, and Koo was left with a slump that embarrassed everyone in the early days of the season.
In addition, 스포츠토토 Lotte cannot afford to immediately invest a lot of money in the market. As a big market club, two years ago, Lotte invested 17 billion won (18.8 million U.S. dollars) in recruiting Yoo Kang-nam (8 billion won (8 million dollars for four years), Roh Jin-hyuk (5 billion won for four years), and Han Hyun-hee (4 billion won for three plus one year) in the FA market, claiming to be a big player. However, the situation has changed in just two years.