South Korea’s Sports World reported that pitcher Gwanghyun Kim (Incheon SK Wyverns) has finally decided to decline the offer made to him by the San Diego Padres. His KBO (Korean Baseball Organization) team, the Wyverns announced that negotiations with the Padres have ruptured, and their pitcher will be returning to Korea to prepare for the upcoming 2015 season.
Wyverns staff, and various sports columnists in Korea have speculated that Kim’s fastball and slider, and the fact that he was a lefty would strongly appeal to the at least as a relieving pitcher. Even though Kim was offered only a 2 million dollar contract, his agent and Wyverns executives had believed further negotiation would result in a possible pay raise and even options. The results however were rather disappointing for Korea’s best pitcher.
It turns out that the Padres were deeply concerned with Kim’s past injuries to his left elbow, which brought about 3 consecutive seasons of constantly coming back and forth between the field, bench, and rehabilitation. Only this year, he fully recovered and many Wyverns fans thought he was back to his good old self again. However, it was not enough to please the Padres.
In addition, Sports World reported that even if Kim had decided to receive the Padres’ final offer (which is believed to be even lower than his initial down payment) it would basically leave the Wyverns in a financial crisis. They would have to give up their best starting pitcher, but they would not have the assets to bring in Free Agents from other KBO teams. They would have to literally “rebuild” their starting lineup and bullpen from scratch.
Hyun-Jong Yang, a pitcher for the Gwangju KIA Tigers was reported to have already declined the bid of 1.7 million dollars from the Texas Rangers. Like the Wyverns, the Tigers had decided that it would not be worth it to send away their best pitcher without even enough money to recruit a suitable replacement. Both Yang and Kim are believed to have decided to wait until they gain Free Agent status from their respective KBO teams. For now, they will be unable to try out for MLB ball clubs until the 1st of November 2015.
The only KBO player in the history of Korean baseball who had moved onto the Major League via this posting system was Hyun Jin Ryu (L.A. Dodgers). All other KBO players had to decline their offers from MLB ball clubs to such disappointingly low bids. Many of these players were considered the best in Korea, including Chang-yong Lim (former Chicago Cubs).
Meanwhile, Jung-Ho Kang (Seoul Nexen Heroes) is getting ready to move onto the Major League via the posting system. Kang became the first Korean short stop to hit over 40 homeruns and is expected to be the first KBO field player to join an MLB team. However, many are concerned about whether Kang will be able to fulfill his dreams of being remembered as the Korean A-Rod, there have only ever been 2 Korean field players. One of them is Shin-soo Choo who is currently going through rehabilitation after a disastrous new season with the Texas Rangers, despite his past record-breaking performances while playing for the Cleveland Indians and Cincinnati Reds. The other one is Hee-sup Choi (former Chicago Cubs, L.A. Dodgers) who is currently back in Korea playing for the Tigers. Choi has never managed to leave a lasting impact in the Big League and was forced to return to his homeland. Even very few Japanese field players besides Ichiro Suzuki (New York Yankees) and Hideki Matsui (former Tampa Bay Rays) have succeeded in the Major League.
With so many Korean and Japanese players, both field players and pitchers, the KBO and NPB (Nippon Pro Baseball) are concerned about the quality of their domestic leagues dropping with their best players trying to move on with “bigger” goals.
