2023 KBO League, average annual salary of players ‘146.48 million won’, down 4% from last year
- allforyouclick
- 0
- on Mar 07, 2023
The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) has announced the salary status of the 2023 KBO League players. As of February 27th, the average annual salary of 506 players from 10 league clubs, excluding newcomers and foreign players, was calculated at 146.48 million won. This is an amount reduced by about 4% from 152.59 million won last season (2022), which was recorded as the highest average annual salary ever.메이저놀이터
As of last year, among the 10 clubs, the team that recorded the highest average annual salary increase was the Hanwha Eagles. Hanwha raised 45.19 million won from the previous season (90.52 million won) to 135.71 million won, showing the highest increase rate (49.9%) among the 10 clubs.
Hanwha’s average salary increase is interpreted as the result of active reinforcement of power through free agent (FA) contracts such as Chae Eun-seong (outfielder, infielder) Lee Tae-yang (pitcher) Oh Seon-jin (infielder).
The Lotte Giants also posted an increase of 24.6% to 141.38 million won, up 27.96 million won from the previous season’s average annual salary of 113.42 million won, ranking second after Hanwha in the increase rate category.
The average annual salary increase rate for the top 28 players by club based on KBO league entry registration standards (excluding foreign players) was also ranked first and second by Hanwha (58.6%) and Lotte (24.5%), respectively.
The team’s average salary was 175.59 million won for SSG Landers, who won the combined championship last season, the highest among 10 clubs. SSG maintained its No. 1 spot this year as well as last year.
SSG is a 35.1% decrease from last season’s 270.44 million won, but it still pays the highest annual salary among the 10 clubs. Samsung Lions ranked second after SSG with an average annual salary of 163.41 million won. The combined average annual salary of the top 28 players per club, which is based on the number of registered KBO league entries, is also 309.57 million won, the highest for SSG.
Chae Eun-seong, who transferred from the LG Twins to Hanwha after obtaining FA status during the offseason, recorded the highest annual salary increase compared to the previous year. He finished the contract with 1.8 billion won, up 1.52 billion won from 280 million won the previous year.
The increase rate is also 542.9%, which is the highest in the 2023 season. Through this annual salary contract, Chae Eun-seong’s annual salary became the main character with the third highest increase rate in the history of the KBO League, following Hanyu Island (SSG, 1233.3%) and Koo Ja-wook (Samsung, 594.4%) in the 2022 season.
Lee Jeong-hoo (Kiwoom Heroes), who has been in his 7th year of joining, receives the highest annual salary this season. It is 1.1 billion won, twice as much as Kiwoom Ha-seong Kim (2020, 550 million won, MLB San Diego Padres), who was the highest annual salary in the previous 7 years.
Since 2019, the third year, Lee Jung-hoo has recorded the highest amount ever for that year. He has been marching to achieve the highest annual salary record for the fifth consecutive year until this year.
The highest-paid pitcher is Park Se-woong (Lotte). Park Se-woong signed a non-FA multi-year contract with an annual salary of 1.5 billion won, becoming the highest-paid player among 10-year-old players, including pitchers this year.
The highest-paid hitter is Ja-wook Koo, who receives 2 billion won this season.
Among the 2023 KBO League clubs, the club with the highest average annual age of its players was LG (9.5 years), while the lowest was Kiwoom (7.7 years). Also, the club with the highest average age is SSG (28.9 years old) and the lowest is NC (27.1 years old).
The average height of all registered players in the KBO League decreased from 182.9 cm to 182.5 cm compared to last year. Weight increased slightly from 87.4 kg to 87.5 kg. The average age rose from 27.9 to 28 years.