"I acknowledge your performance." Will Kim Do-young's annual salary of 500 million won be possible… LG was prepared, but KIA was never over the top
"I acknowledge your performance." Will Kim Do-young's annual salary of 500 million won be possible… LG was prepared, but KIA was never over the top
Blog Article
As the salary negotiations for the 2024 integrated winner KIA's 2025 renewal target have entered the final stage, attention is focused on the results of negotiations between Kim Do-young (22), the MVP of the 2024 regular season.안전놀이터
Kia plans to fully acknowledge Kim's performance award in 2024 and provide him with reasonable treatment. While it is important to pay attention to controversy over fairness in salary negotiations, it can afford to abate such controversies as Kim's performance and contribution to the team are too overwhelming. However, the situation may differ from the player's perspective. Amid the ongoing negotiations, the mood is not so harsh. Attention is focusing on whether Kia will be able to conclude the negotiations according to the 2025 salary scenario.
Teams that have won major titles generally receive generous treatment to their core players. Most teams in the KBO League have adopted a system in which overall pie is determined based on team performance and the pie is divided according to their achievements. Since KIA won the regular season title and the Korean Series title, of course, the pie is bigger and more profitable than other teams. While salaries for players who are bound by free agent and non-FA multi-year contracts, such as Choi Hyung-woo, Yang Hyun-jong, Na Sung-bum, Kim Sun-bin and Kim Tae-gun, are set early this year, other players face many reasons for increase. We should focus not only on one player's table. We should proceed by looking at the overall forest.
It is all the more so in the era of equal competition (salary cap). If the cap is exceeded, the team is subject to sanctions accordingly. Kia is one of the leading teams that cannot afford to raise the cap. According to the KBO's announcement on the current status of 2024, Kia's competition equalization tax for last year amounted to 11.24 billion won (11.24 billion U.S. dollars), which used up 98.5 percent of the total amount. Although the cap on the competition equalization tax for 2025 is set to rise year-on-year to reflect inflation, Kia cannot afford to use up all of this amount. Only when it has leeway, it can prepare for potential trade deals in the middle of this season, and many players are eligible to become free agents after the 2025 season.
The absolute amount based on the equal competition tax has risen by about 2.3 billion won (2.33 million U.S. dollars). The surplus of 2.3 billion won (2.63 million dollars) is likely to be used up during the annual salary negotiations this year. Among them, negotiator Kim Do-young, who is expected to raise his salary the most, is drawing attention. He was the best player in the league in 2024, which is recognized by his own players. He played in 141 games during this season and posted an outstanding batting average of 0.347, 38 homers, 109 RBIs, 40 steals, 143 runs, and OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) of 1.067. Following Eric Thames, he has risen to stardom not only in KIA but also in the entire league.
Kim's annual salary in 2024 was 100 million won (approx. Since his debut in 2022, he has entered the third year of 2024 into the annual salary of 100 million won (approx. It is certain that his salary will skyrocket this year, and how much interest he will receive. Kia has acknowledged Kim's achievements and vowed to provide him with reasonable treatment, as he made significant contributions to the overall championship. The first benchmark for now is the highest salary in his fourth year in the KBO, which Lee Jung-hoo (then Kiwoom and current San Francisco Giants) holds in 2020. Lee received 390 million won (390,000 dollars) at the time, and Kim Do-young naturally wishes for more. Kia is also expected to pay more than that.
However, more than that seems to be the area of negotiation. Kim Do-young delivered the desired amount to the club early on. Judging that Kim is the most difficult person to negotiate the salary, the club put the order of negotiations behind the scenes. While negotiations have begun, adjustments are reportedly being made to the two sides' first offer. It seems that the 400 million won standard is already exceeded, and the key could be whether the team breaks through the symbolic wall of 500 million won or how close the team can get to it if not.
Kia has closely simulated the upcoming salary negotiations since right after the end of the season. It divided the two teams into several scenarios according to the team's performance system, and projected a team's annual salary in 2025. Kia plans to make no over-competitive. It has already finished calculating that the negotiations can conclude at such a level. Chances are high that the Kia Tigers has already decided on an early date with a certain scope of its annual salary to be offered to Kim. The same applies to other players.
LG, which had been the unified champion in 2023, planned to wipe out the sanctions at least once due to the structure of the team. If the upper limit of the equal competition tax is exceeded once, 50 percent of the excess must be paid to the power generation fund, which LG paid 1.21 billion won (1.214 million U.S. dollars) to the power generation fund, exceeding the upper limit of 2.42 billion won (2.42 million dollars) in 2024. LG realized its plan to raise the annual salary of its key players under multi-year contracts to 2024, but lower the team's annual salary from 2025 to end up with one over-time sanctions. The plan is due to the fact that more than one time is paid only with money, but if more than two times in a row, the team will have to pay 100 percent of the excess to the power generation fund, and the draft strategy will be disrupted as the first round nomination rights will fall by nine notches next year.
Kia will likely proceed with the latest salary negotiations in line with its firm policy that it will not exceed the upper limit of the competition equal tax in 2025. Attention is focusing on whether the two sides can find a point of contact that satisfies the situation. Kia, which will hold the first camp in Irvine, California this year, aims to complete the negotiations with all of its players before the camp starts.