Kiwoom's unique way of survival without its parent company, 'Raising new people and recruiting released veterans.'
Kiwoom's unique way of survival without its parent company, 'Raising new people and recruiting released veterans.'
Blog Article
On the 18th, the secretariat of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) announced the total amount of the top 40 annual salary for each club in 2024.
The KBO Secretariat introduced a competitive equal tax (salary cap) from 2023, and the standard amount was set at 120% of the average total amount of 40 people.
As a result, LG Twins exceeded KRW 2,429.89 billion to KRW 13.85616 billion this year, paying 50% of the excess (1.214.89 billion won) to the baseball development fund for the first time.메이저사이트
Among the 10 clubs, only the NC Dinos and Kiwoom Heroes did not exceed 10 billion won in total annual salary.
NC was close to 10 billion won with 9.47 billion won, while Kiwoom was far short of 5,678.76 million won.
It is only 41% of LG, the team's highest annual salary, and 60% compared to 9th place NC, and less than half of the competitive equal tax standard of KRW 11.426.38 billion.
This is a number that shows how much Kiwoom tightened its belt compared to the rest of the clubs this year.
Kiwoom's remarkable move continued on Wednesday. It handed over fireman Cho Sang-woo, who had received the most attention in the KBO League trade market, to the KIA Tigers.
Kiwoom received 1 billion won in cash and 1 billion won in the first and fourth rounds of the KBO League rookie draft in the 2026 season.
Kiwoom has been consistently negotiating behind the scenes to trade Cho Sang-woo, who will become a free agent (FA) at the end of the 2025 season.
After finishing second in the Korean Series in 2022, Kiwoom, who finished at the bottom for the second consecutive year in 2023 and this year, believes that the "top finish in the league" is a luxury.
Kiwoom did not hesitate to press the "rebuilding button" in the second half of 2023 when Lee Jung-hoo (San Francisco Giants) ended the season with an injury and even ace Ahn Woo-jin joined the army.
As can be seen from the annual salary, which is half that of other clubs, Kiwoom has been suffering from power shortages throughout the season and finished the season at the bottom.
Kiwoom expects to have the power to challenge for the championship again in 2026, when Ahn Woo-jin and Kim Jae-woong, who joined the army, return.
Until then, their survival strategy is to reduce unnecessary spending and secure prospects instead of sticking to their immediate results.
Since it is the only team among the 10 clubs that does not have a parent company, it can embark on a drastic rebuild that is close to the Major League Baseball (MLB) style.
Kiwoom secured an additional first-round pick for the 2024 season by sending Choi Won-tae (Samsung Lions) to LG in 2023, and this year, it sent Kim Hwi-jip to NC and received another first-round pick for the 2025 season.
This time, he handed over Cho Sang-woo to KIA and secured a first-round pick for 2026 season, and used two first-round pick for the third consecutive year in the rookie draft. Literally, he has attracted promising players who have been knocking on the door of the KBO League for the past three years like a trawler.
In addition, Kiwoom has intensively recruited veterans from other teams, including pitcher Jang Pil-joon, outfielder Kim Dong-yeop, and infielder Oh Sun-jin, to fill the gap created by sending key players one after another.
However, fans are in an atmosphere that "I can understand it with my head, but I can't accept it with my heart" over Kiwoom's management method.
The past, when Jang Won-sam (retired) and Hwang Jae-kyun (kt wiz) sold the core of their team's pitching power due to financial difficulties in the team's early days, remained a painful memory for Kiwoom fans.
Of course, the background of Kiwoom's "bomb sale" now is not the same financial difficulty as in the past. The financial structure is much better than before.
However, it is good to choose and focus, but it is also necessary to have a strategy that can hold on to the performance-sensitive fans so that they do not get agitated while continuously developing the main players.