Kang Baek-ho (26, KT) will start the new season with an exceptional salary. At the same time, the player and the club showed different ways of winning.메이저사이트

KT announced on the 25th, a day before the departure of the spring camp, that it had renewed its contract with Kang Baek-ho for 700 million won as it completed the team's annual salary contract. It rose 410 million won from 290 million won last year. At 141.4%, it is the highest increase since KT was founded.

Last year, Kang Baek-ho played in the foreground for the first time since his debut and played a batting average of 0.289 with 26 home runs, 96 RBIs, 92 runs and an OPS of 0.840. He rebounded after shaking off the injuries and sluggishness of the previous two years. There are enough factors for the increase, but the width is unprecedented. KIA Kim Do-young was the only player who raised 400 million won from 100 million won on the 21st to 500 million won due to general renewal, not free agency or multi-year contracts.

Kang will become a free agent after the completion of this season. This increase is also far from the trend of prospective free agents. The number of cases in which clubs put a "premium" on the season right before the FA season to minimize the possibility of transfer has declined significantly since the FA grade system was introduced. Players generally refuse to do so to be free from the free agent market.

KT, whose biggest task is to prepare for Kang's stay after the season, seems to have put more weight on Kang's "symbol" once again. Kang is the best franchise star at KT, which has the shortest club history in the league. He made history as the first rookie of the year by making strong debuts, and was praised as talented as a player who can dominate the league. Despite some unfavorable factors, he revealed his talent again when he made a comeback last year. It is hard to predict how Kang will explode this year, the season right before the FA. Kang's overwhelming presence in marketing is even bigger than seen from the outside.

KT, which has to keep Kang in the free agent market after this season, initially considered signing a multi-year contract, but decided to sign a multi-year contract after renewing its annual salary. At this point, it is difficult to measure the scale of Kang's contract, which is already dubbed the "biggest fish" in the world, and hence it is not easy to meet the expectations of a multi-year contract. For one, the KT team provided minimal safety measures with an annual salary of 700 million won through an all-time increase.

Kang Baek-ho has already been at the center of the topic several times with his salary. He set a new salary record in his fifth year by receiving 550 million won in 2022, but was cut almost by half to 290 million won the following year when he could not play half of the season due to injury. Although he played only 71 games in 2023, the club froze his salary in 2024 to motivate himself, and Kang, who struggled hard, made a comeback and received a significant raise in his salary in the last season before the FA. The history of his salary contains traces of KT's annual agony over Kang Baek-ho.

700 million won is also a considerable burden to Kang. Even if his salary was frozen this year, Kang's grade, which was likely to be A grade, has not changed, but his transfer fee has now reached at least 1.4 billion won. The ransom will increase only when competition is made. For the "biggest fish" FA contract, he must show destructive power that he wants to take even if he has to offer 1.4 billion won to "compensated players other than 20 protected players."

Since the league witnessed 2022-2023, when he clearly had good talent but was extremely sluggish due to various problems, this year should also show the continuity of 2024 when he got back on his feet. This is the season when everyone will pay attention to Kang. Kang Baek-ho also expressed his will and determination by not hesitating to earn ultra-high salaries in the season just before the FA.