Choo Shin-soo (42, SSG), who has been burning the flame in his last home country since playing in the Major League for 16 years, declined to comment on his retirement plan until the middle of the 2023 season. The future of 2024 was coming up, but nothing has been decided.” He seemed to be agonizing over one scenario or another.
The word “win” was my lifelong wish in 2022. I have already achieved everything I could personally achieve in 2022. Considering my age, it was not strange to retire anytime. At the age of 40 or older, I desperately felt physically and physically that I was not as good as before. However, I still liked baseball, and I was excited on the way to the stadium. It was a clash of heads and minds. On the other hand, the club was also interested in Choo’s future. His role in the team’s history was also important, and he also had problems with salary cap.
The salary cap, which was officially introduced in 2023, was the official topic of conversation among the 10 KBO League clubs. Violation of the rule would result in immediate sanctions, so clubs had to carefully plan their salary structure. SSG, which made aggressive investments after acquiring SSG, was also a representative team that turned red when it came to compliance with salary cap. In preparation for the introduction of the salary cap system, all kinds of diversification strategies were implemented, but there were certain aspects that were physically overwhelming.
2023 was not the only problem. Calculations showed that it would be tight even after 2024. Key players in the team, like Choi Jeong and Seo Jin-yong, were also set to acquire free agent (FA) status. Trade was something they had to do while looking at the opponent’s annual salary. After organizing all the contractual incentives, the remaining salary cap was around 580 million won as of 2023. In the league, he had the second smallest margin after LG.
After joining the SSG, Choo received 2.7 billion won in annual salary in 2021 and 2022 respectively. Although he has donated nearly half of his money here and there, it should be seen as a respectful number. In 2023, when his team was under pressure for salary cap, he made a contract for 1.7 billion won by cutting 1 billion won, but the deal was expensive. If Choo continues his active career in 2024, a drastic cut in his salary was inevitable considering other players. There could have been some discord in the process. 온라인카지노
However, that didn’t happen in the end. Choo had already ruled out such a scenario. “If I play in 2024, there will be no salary issues,” Choo said from the middle of the 2023 season before his decision on his future course was made. “I will play without getting paid.” “Please tell me if you need me on this team or not. I will take care of it,” he said at a meeting with the club’s leaders after the 2023 season. He made it clear that there will be no salary issues.
The SSG still needed Choo’s capability. Despite being over 40, the team still displayed top-notch performance in offense. He also displayed outstanding leadership by combining players into one team. More than anything else, young players had so much to learn. Then, Choo defined 2024 as his last season of active pro baseball and delivered to his club that he would not receive an annual salary as he said. Since Choo cannot legally have no annual salary, he will only receive 30 million won (27,400 U.S. dollars), the lowest annual salary in the league. Choo plans to donate all of those.
In the process, Choo asked the club to do one thing. SSG also had an annual salary set within its salary cap if Choo was to extend his active service. It was less than half of his salary in 2023. But now that he has more leeway, he asked him to use the amount for salary negotiations. “Players who will raise their annual salary a little more, and players who are worse than others should be cut a little less,” Choo said.
SSG was also able to enter into salary negotiations with a little leeway. Although many players were bound by FA or non-FA multi-year contracts in the first place, negotiations were able to go relatively smoothly without deviating from the club’s salary cap measures. Negotiations have been concluded with almost all of the players, and once the last two or so are completed, we plan to inform them of the negotiations en masse.