Interesting opinion piece in the Korea Times about how the current free agency rules prohibit any player movement in the offseason due to what the writer believes are excessive compensation rules.
In the current system, a team that signs a free agent must either pay his former team cash worth three times his previous salary and send it a compensation player from its own roster, or cut a paycheck worth 4.5 times of the player’s previous salary.
Because of this rule, only the top echelon of players are managing to test their value on the open market, while mid-level players tend to stay with their teams instead of risking losing their jobs completely. Only six of the 20 eligible players filed for free agency this year.
The article argues that free agency becomes a high stakes gamble, where teams are forced to mortgage their futures in attempts to land guys like Kim Dong-joo (pictured above), who is far and away the best of this year’s free agency class.
5 responses so far ↓
1 P // Nov 25, 2007 at 4:32 pm
As far as I know it’s much the same way in Japan. I have mixed feelings about it, on one hand I think it controls salaries a little, and keeps players loyal to their clubs. I realize this isn’t exactly in step with a freemarket business, but sometimes I wish players in the U.S. didn’t switch as often as they do.
2 A.S. // Nov 25, 2007 at 11:14 pm
I kind of like it too, personally. Or, I like the fact that players in the Korean league tend to stay with one team for most of their careers. I’ve thought the whole Clemens pro-wrestling, up for the highest bidder schtick was crap.
But the writer makes a good point that it makes for a boring offseason. Maybe that’s why he has an ax to grind.
3 Westbaystars // Nov 27, 2007 at 11:26 am
In Japan compensation has been 1.5 times the previous year’s salary or a non-reserved player (that’s how Yokohama got Kudoh from the Giants last off-season). I’d read that the cash payment was changed to 1.3 times recently, but have not yet confirmed that.
When I saw how much it was in Korea, my eyes popped out of my head. And I thought the Japanese owners were restrictive.
4 A.S. // Nov 27, 2007 at 2:16 pm
Yikes. Now my eyes are popping out of my head. That is strict. Wonder what it is in Taiwan.
5 Stupid Better Devil Newpaper | East Windup Chronicle // Dec 30, 2007 at 3:35 pm
[...] garbage if they don’t immediately produce. This makes for a league where Korean players are glued to the same team for their entire career, because teams that sign free agents must pay such high compensation, but [...]
Leave a Comment