The average FA pitcher's ransom for six years is 5 to 6 billion? What the hell is going on with the KBO League?
Nov 18, 2025
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This is the sound of a working-level worker in Team A who has experienced the FA market in recent years.
The reality of the KBO League FA market is that only the words 'crazy' are mentioned recently. The players' ransom is going up too high. It is natural for a player who does well and a player who can present victory to the team to receive objective evaluation and receive a lot of money. But the market is not such a reasonable place recently. If you get hit with luck, you'll get a contract that's beyond your imagination. A representative example is Shim Woo-joon, who wore a Hanwha Eagles uniform for a total of 5 billion won over four years last year. As a result of the storm, Park Chan-ho of the same position signed a four-year contract worth 8 billion won with the Doosan Bears. 8 billion won is also surprising, of which the down payment is 5 billion won.
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FA Lee Young-ha from Doosan Bears won 17 games in the 2019 season, emerging as a native ace. However, after falling from the 2020 season, he has never played a noticeable role for six seasons until this year. In terms of wins, the highest is six wins, and in terms of the number of games and holds, 14 holds in 73 games this year are the most. There are clear signs of fighting in the preliminary FA season. However, he was average with 4 wins, 4 losses and 14 holds with an ERA of 4.05.
FA is dominated by the principles of supply and demand. Therefore, if there are many teams looking for regardless of their grades and skills, the ransom will increase. However, that is also when there is a basic foundation with some grades and skills. Like Park Chan-ho. However, in terms of performance alone, Lee Young-ha is compared to Sovereignty, who signed a 2+2 year contract with KT Wiz last year for a total of 1.6 billion won. Although there are no pitchers in the FA market this year, and Lee Young-ha is a resource that can be used as an all-weather resource for starters and bullpens, the 5 billion won ransom makes even clubs who want to recruit difficult. It's not that the ransom went up naturally due to competition, but when I saw some teams wanting Lee Young-ha, I can't get rid of the feeling of seeing 'screaming'. with a maneuver called 'Get one of them'
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It has gradually expanded its position in the agent market, and it is no exaggeration to say that it is currently 'monopoly'. So I had the power to sleep as I wanted. They know each club's willingness to participate in the FA, the amount of money they can invest, and their priority positions. It is a way of selling the next player to the team at a high price in order to increase the entire game by signing the contract from the largest player, and to target the 'panic buy' of the teams that lost the player recruitment match. If KT, which missed Park Chan-ho, takes Kim Hyun-soo above the market, the operation will be successful. KBO League clubs that receive budget support from their parent groups, not their own money, are seeing the period when they have to spend all the money they received or when the owner says, `Catch this player', they have to catch it with their lives.
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The bigger problem is that this will continue in the future, and the stakes are bound to grow. Recently, it is aggressively recruiting 'moneyable' players such as Won Tae-in (Samsung), Ahn Hyun-min (KT), and Kim Joo-won (NC). There are also Koo Ja-wook (Samsung) and Kwak Bin (Doosan). Won Tae-in, who is considered the best starter in the league, is next year's FA. There may be a justification for helping overseas expansion well, but it is significant to choose to go to Rico ahead of this.
It is understandable that players flock there because the agent works well and receives a lot of money. However, it is not a healthy competition, but it can be a breakdown of the market order to confuse monopolistic clubs and raise the ransom. There are already lamentable voices in the baseball world that `"this and all will die." 'Emergency warning lamp' illuminated.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
