NC’s sigh, “The foreign cap.”

The NC Dinos are actively engaged in the recruitment of ace Eric Peddy, 30, but they have not been able to do so. With both Major League teams in the U.S. and Japanese professional baseball (NPB) teams showing interest in Peddy, who has had one of the greatest seasons ever, it is almost impossible for a KBO team to win in Tran’s war. The value of a professional player is ultimately determined by the ransom, and unless he appeals to Peddy for “righteousness,” chances are slim that he will remain in the NC Dinos.

Starting this year, the KBO introduced a salary cap system, in which the total amount of money spent on three foreign players should not exceed 4 million U.S. dollars. The 4 million dollars will include a special agreement in addition to annual salary, down payment and transfer fees, based on the actual payment of options. Although there are exceptions that allow a team to increase the limit by 100,000 dollars depending on the annual salary (including renewal of contracts with foreign players with holding rights), there is a limit to the amount that can be spent on a single foreign player. 메이저 토토사이트

The Major League is a place where a player can be guaranteed well over 4 million U.S. dollars. Drew Lucinski (35), the most generous foreign pitcher among those who recently moved to the Major League from the KBO, also signed a one-year guarantee contract of 3 million dollars with the Oakland Athletics last winter. Including 5 million dollars in 2024, he could have received up to 8 million dollars per year, but his option was not implemented in 2024, as he only pitched in four games due to injury and sluggishness during the season. Still, he received 3 million dollars.

Merrill Kelly, who wrote the KBO reverse export myth, was guaranteed 33 million dollars (about 42.9 billion won) by the Arizona Diamondbacks for six years from 2019 to 2024. Ahead of the 2019 season, he signed a two-year, 5.5 million-dollar contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks, and completed a two-year, 14.5 million-dollar contract for 2+2 years as the team’s options were implemented in 2021 and 2022. An additional $18 million was guaranteed by 2024 by signing a two-year extension prior to the 2022 season. Arizona also added a clause to the team’s option of $7 million in 2025 that Kelly will receive $1 million in buyouts if the team refuses to implement the option.

Josh Lindblom (retired) of the 2019 KBO MVP from the Doosan Bears signed a three-year, $9.125 million (about 11.8 billion) contract with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2020, and Chris Flexen signed a two-year, $4.75 million (about 6.1 billion won) contract with the Seattle Mariners in 2021.

What Luccinski, Kelly, Lindblom and Flexen have in common is that they have never outperformed Pedi in the KBO league. Kelly, who received the best treatment, has never had 20 wins or 200 strikeouts while playing for the SK Wyverns (currently SSG Landers) for four seasons from 2015 to 2018. No season has ever recorded an ERA of two runs, and his record of 3.60 in 2017 was the lowest. Nevertheless, they were treated well in the world’s best Major League and had the opportunity to live more comfortably in their hometown of the U.S.

Some predict that if Pedi advances to the Major League, he will easily surpass the initial contract amount of the aforementioned players. Pedi won the MVP award at the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO Awards held at Westin Chosun Seoul in Sogong-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul on Wednesday. He garnered 102 votes out of 111 votes to garner 91.9 percent of the vote.

In addition to the MVP, he swept four more trophies to win five times. In 30 games this season, Peddy started 20-6 with 180 ⅓ innings, 209 strikeouts and 2.00 ERA. He became the fourth pitcher in KBO history to win multiple wins, strikeouts and earned run average, and became the first foreign pitcher to receive Triple Crown title. In addition, he became the winner of this year’s defense award. None of the foreigners who recently moved to the Major League from the KBO have outperformed Peddy.

Pedi was also named the fifth player in 37 years to achieve 20 wins and 200 strikeouts at the same time. He marked the first time in 37 years since Jang Myung-bu (30 wins – 220 strikeouts), Choi Dong-won (27 wins – 223 strikeouts) of Lotte in 1984, Kim Si-jin (25 wins – 201 strikeouts) of Samsung in 1985, and Sun Dong-yeol (24 wins – 214 strikeouts) of Haitai in 1986.

Pedi himself had an unbelievable season, and now he’s getting the attention of Major League Baseball and NPB teams, it’s like a dream. Pedi said, “I think I can say it’s been an incredible season. During the season, I did things that I thought ‘Can I do it?’ and I was able to finish it well. I think there will be no more great season in baseball than this season in the future.”

After returning to the U.S. after the season, Peddy specifically visited Korea again to attend the ceremony. Despite the tight schedule of returning to the U.S. within two days, he came back to Korea with his father to celebrate the best season of his life. NC will have a brief conversation with Peddy about renewing his contract during his stay in Korea, but he is not coldly hopeful.

Lim Seon-nam, the general manager of NC, said, “We definitely want to get Fedi. We will continue talks with Fedi to renew his contract, but it is not easy to compete with Major League teams. We also have salary caps for foreign players,” expressing regret.

“I think I need to talk to NC for now. I can talk to other teams after that,” Peddy said. “I think NC is an incredible team. I think NC is always going to have a place in our hearts.”

The highest annual salary ever paid by a foreign player in the KBO League is 2 million dollars. Dustin Nippert of the Doosan Bears in 2017 and Luccinski of the NC Dinosaurs in 2020. If NC is greedy and guarantees Peddy an amount that exceeds 2 million dollars, it will have to give up when signing contracts with the other two foreign players. Foreigners and batters are also important players in managing a season, so they cannot afford to cut back on their investment.

NC plans to renew the contract with Pedi and continue the overall contract with foreign players. It has decided to break up with Tanner Turley, who joined the club as an alternative foreign pitcher during this season, while outfielder Jason Martin is put on hold. If the foreign hitter market is in such a bad condition that it judges that no player is better than Martin, the team plans to renew the contract with Martin. Martin has displayed batting performance above the league average this year with a batting average of 0.283 (123 hits in 435 times at bat), 17 homers and 90 RBIs.