Substitution of injured or sluggish foreign players by club
The total amount of new foreign player contracts of 1 million dollars is rather an ankle
Arguing that the limit on foreign players should be increased to reduce risk
As the spring breeze recedes ahead of the full-fledged summer, a sharp wind is blowing in the KBO League to expel foreign players. As the battle for rankings intensifies ahead of June, each club’s movement to replace foreign players is also accelerating.
‘Defending champion’ KT has already replaced two foreign players in less than two months since the season started. He expelled Cuevas (Pitcher) and Ramos (Hitter), who had left due to injury, and signed Wes Benjamin (Pitcher) and Anthony Alford (Hitter), using both substitution limits early.
Cuevas, who led KT’s first integrated championship last year, renewed his contract for $1.1 million in December of that year, but this season he was disgraced as the ‘No. 1 expelled foreign player’.
LG is in the process of replacing infielder Rio Ruiz, who has fallen into a slump in hitting. LG general manager Cha Myung-seok got on a plane to the United States to find a foreign hitter that might be used.
In addition, Yasiel Puig (Kiwoom Heroes), DJ Peters (Lotte) and Mike Tuckman (Hanwha) on the batter side, and Glenn Sparkman (Lotte) and Ivan Nova (SSG) on the pitching side worried regarding their team due to poor results. is hugging
In particular, Puig, Ruiz, Turkman, and Nova were brought in for a total of 1 million dollars (1.2 billion won), which is the upper limit of foreign players this season, so it is even more disappointing.
The cost of replacing and recruiting foreign players is not insignificant. It is a huge burden for the club. If the clubs that have suffered a major blow to their sales due to a drop in and spectator income in the followingmath of the COVID-19 outbreak in the past two years go out to replace foreign players, they will be wasting money on foreign players that have already been recruited. But for the sake of grades, replacement is also an inevitable choice.
As the club’s spending and burden increase, the voices calling for the ‘abolition of the upper limit on ransom prices’ and the ‘limit for holding foreign players’ are rising once more.
According to the rules in the KBO League, a team can have 3 foreign players. Because of this, every time a foreign player is replaced, a considerable amount of money and time is spent.
On the other hand, even if there is a limit on the number of players, it is possible to reduce the risk for each club by increasing the limit on the number of foreign players. By cultivating potential upbringing-type foreign players, it can be used to contribute to their power in the future. In the case of upbringing foreign players, it is possible to sign them at a low cost, so there is no burden on the club.
There are also arguments that the ‘one million dollar cap’ on the recruitment of new foreign players should be overhauled.
With $1 million, it is not easy to recruit high-level foreign players. In a ‘money battle’ with Japanese clubs that have no upper limit on the amount of foreign players recruited and no limit, domestic clubs have always had to lose.
In the end, if a player who was selected and brought in does not adapt to the league and undergoes a replacement procedure, the club repeats a vicious cycle of wasting money and time.
The general consensus is that it can be more helpful to raise the quality of the league by bringing in high-quality foreign players through a more certain investment if it is necessary.
©Dailyan Co., Ltd. Unauthorized reproduction and redistribution prohibited