Six professional baseball teams completed the composition of foreign players for the 2023 season before the end of the year.
As of the 12th, Kiwoom Heroes, kt wiz, KIA Tigers, Samsung Lions, Lotte Giants, and Doosan Bears filled all three foreign quotas with two pitchers and one fielder.
SSG Landers and LG Twins complete foreign contracts when they recruit a pitcher and a hitter, respectively.
SSG, which replaces all three foreign players who won the championship, newly recruited left-handed pitcher Kirk McCarty (27) and MLB veteran outfielder Guillermo Heredia (31).
LG captured all of Casey Kelly (33) and Adam Plutko (31), who jointly won 31 wins this season.
The club with the slowest signing rate is the Hanwha Eagles, which has not yet signed a single player.
The NC Dinos also announced that they had newly recruited right-handed and left-handed outfielder Jason Martin (27) for a total of $1 million, but the two pitchers are still looking into them.
A Hanwha official said, “It seems that the outline of the foreign player contract will come out this week,” and an NC official said, “We are trying to finalize the composition of foreign players within this year.”
Twelve out of the 23 contracted strangers have re-signed with their current team.
Samsung renewed contracts with all players including David Buchanan (33), Albert Suarez (33, pitcher), and Jose Pirella (33, outfielder). Lotte will also accompany Dan Straley (34), Charlie Barnes (26, pitcher), and Jack Rex (29, outfielder) in 2023 as well.
LG Kelly, who is scheduled to play in Korea 스포츠토토 for the fifth year, booked the highest ransom price for a foreign player, beating Pirella ($1.7 million) with a total annual salary of up to $1.8 million.
However, the total annual salary ranking may change depending on the renewal of the contract by pitcher Drew Luchinski (33), who became the highest paid foreign player with a total of $2 million in NC this season.
Luchinski is currently putting off negotiations with NC to renew the contract, saying he will listen to the MLB club’s recruitment offer.
Kiwoom’s infielder Addison Russell (28) and Doosan Bears’ Raul Alcantara (31) will return to the KBO league after three years.
With Lee Seung-yeop (46), the “national hitter,” taking the new helm, Doosan has completely changed its foreign lineup with Alcantara, Dylan Pyle (26 or older pitcher), and Jose Rojas (29), who watches both the inside and outfield defense.
Among the players who are about to debut in the KBO league, players with relatively low salaries are KIA’s new right-handed pitcher Adonis Medina (26) and Doosan’s file, which signed contracts for $636,000 and $650,000, respectively.
Kiwoom right-handed pitcher Ariel Furado (26), Heredia, KIA right-handed fastball pitcher Sean Anderson (28), and Rojas signed a new foreign salary cap of $1 million.