With the 2024 season just around the corner, KT is agonizing over the design of its team's strength and the free agent market. Key players, who have grown together and elevated the team to the rank of strong players, have begun to qualify as free agents one by one since the early days when the team was in a difficult phase. As KT cannot afford to pour money into the team indefinitely, it eventually needed to make choices and focus.토토사이트

After much consideration, KT signed a non-FA multi-year contract with starting member Ko Young-pyo, but Kim Jae-yoon, who has been active for a long time as the team's finishing pitcher, decided to give up. Kim Jae-yoon is also a necessary player for the team and has great loyalty. However, unlike the bullpen, which has a next-generation finish called Park Young-hyun, the starting pitcher was bound to have a big vacancy if Ko Young-pyo was absent. Meanwhile, the team had to think about the FA that will be released after the 2024 season.

KT may have been thinking the same thing this off-season. After the 2024 season, Shim Woo-joon, the main shortstop, and Um Sang-baek, a member of the team's starting rotation, became eligible as FA. They entered the market with the determination to catch them first, but all failed. It was urgent to strengthen its power, and Hanwha, which had KT players at the point where it needed to strengthen its power, was holding on.

Hanwha's off-season strategy was overwhelming. It has put the amount on the table from the start, which it thought would be difficult for the rival teams to follow suit. After acquiring Hanwha's money, KT gave up following suit, and both players wore Hanwha's uniform. It was not that KT did not have money, nor did it mean that it did not have enough money. However, the general rule of the baseball community is that it had no choice but to think about Kang Baek-ho (26), who will come to the market after the end of the 2025 season.

Kang is a standard-bearer for young batters in the KBO League, which is well recognized by others. Kang, who has been regarded as a great talent since his amateur days, joined KT in 2018 amid a great buzz. Kang showed off his star quality by hitting home runs from his first at-bat since his debut, and has since grown into a star player for his team. He was a rare hitter who could hit a batting average of 300 and hit more than 20 home runs simultaneously in the entire league. He was young, however. His value hit the Sangjongga.

Although Kang was mired in slumps in 2022 and 2023, some say his fundamental value is not a huge flaw. He is still young and still a young hitter who shows the strongest punch power in the league. Last year, his batting average was not as high as 0.289 in 144 games, but he had 26 home runs and 96 RBIs. He also expanded his use by playing as a catcher. The teams that he recruits are likely to use all of Kang's heyday.

Kang Baek-ho, who is also drawing attention from Major League clubs, is likely to consider a four-year contract because he is old enough to serve as an FA one or two more times if he remains in the KBO League. While there are already names of clubs that are likely to participate in the game when Kang Baek-ho is on the market, there is no guarantee that KT will catch Kang Baek-ho again when he is on the market. This is why the idea of a non-FA multi-year contract comes out. It is known that the club is also planning to make a proposal at some point. Although it is at the stage of examining the atmosphere behind the scenes, it is certain that they will put the biggest offer on the table.

It was a bittersweet moment for KT as it lost Shim Woo-joon and Um Sang-baek to Hanwha, but it was forced to save money. In 2024, KT ranked seventh in the league with around 10 billion won (approx. Shim's salary was 290 million won (250 million U.S. dollars) last year, and Um's salary was 250 million won (290 million dollars), which means that his salary was not small, and the standard for competition was increased by 2.5 billion won (approx. As Shim has been trying to raise his team as a franchise star since he was a rookie, he is expected to do his best to catch Kang.

However, it is not known whether Kang Baek-ho will accept this offer. Depending on this year's performance, if you enter the FA market, you may get more money due to competition. Kang Baek-ho's willingness to challenge is also a variable because if you sign a contract, you have to postpone or give up your entry into the Major League. In other words, if KT wants to sign a non-FA multi-year contract, it means that Kang Baek-ho has to make a large offer that is difficult to refuse. Attention is also focusing on what the results will be before the season begins.