The FA negotiations for Hong Kun-hee (31), who moved from KIA to Doosan and became a trade lucky man, are progressing slowly. Doosan, which has set a tone for Hong to stay, and Hong Geon-hee, which wants to remain at Doosan, are not easily narrowed. With the opening of the 2023-2024 Stove League, Doosan Bears have set four major goals. Yang Seok-hwan, who became FA after the end of the season, Hong Geon-hee’s stay, and Raul Alcantara-Brandon Waddell, who faithfully played the role of one-two punch in the 2023 season, renewed his contract.
As of now, about a week before the New Year’s Day, Doosan has achieved 75 percent of its goal. The first achievement was to stay with Yang Seok-hwan, dubbed the biggest “FA” player. After the four-year contract for up to 6.5 billion won (6.3 million U.S. dollars) for the first four-year contract (down payment of 2 billion won, annual salary of 3.9 billion won or 600 million won or 600 million won or so), Doosan signed an FA contract that includes a two-year mutual option, which is triggered by agreement between the club and the players, and maintained the center line and the first baseman’s capability.
Negotiations for foreign pitchers also went smoothly. As a result, he signed contracts with Alcantara for a total of 1.5 million dollars and Brandon for 1.13 million dollars on Monday, extending his relationship with one-two punch who led his return to the autumn baseball league for the first time in two years. At the same time, he parted ways with Jose Rojas, who joined the KT Wiz in the 2023 season, and hired Henry Ramos, who briefly played for the KT Wiz in the 2022 season, for a relatively reasonable $700,000.
Doosan has only one remaining task to do is to negotiate with Hong Kun-hee after keeping FA’s biggest fish and farming foreign players. Doosan first met with Hong’s agent on Nov. 30. Although it did not offer specific terms of the contract from the first meeting, it confirmed the difference between the two sides and concluded the meeting without much income. A Doosan official told OSEN over the phone at the time, “I talked with Hong about the overall atmosphere. I will plan to meet him after understanding the FA market situation a little more.”
However, more than three weeks have passed since then, but the next meeting did not take place. In the meantime, Hong Kun-hee replaced his agent, and Doosan kept track of FA bullpen pitcher trends and Hong’s market demand. Doosan and Hong Geon-hee plan to continue negotiations from January after the year.
Doosan’s position is clear. While maintaining its stance on staying Hong Kun-hee, the team made a precondition that it meets the salary cap standard. “Currently, the salary cap has been set tightly. There is an appropriate standard for Hong Kun-hee’s contract, but if it does not exceed that standard, FA contract can be possible, otherwise it may be difficult,” a Doosan official said. Another official also mentioned the baseline by saying, “We are trying our best to meet Hong’s level.”
As the terms of the negotiations have not yet come and gone, it is expected that Doosan and Hong Gun-hee will not coordinate their opinions until next year. The key is to narrow the gap between Doosan’s standards and Hong Gun-hee’s demands. Hong Kun-hee changed his life by transferring from KIA to Doosan through a one-on-one trade with Ryu Ji-hyuk in June 2020. Despite having fastballs in KIA, he was wandering due to poor control of his pitches, but was reborn as a league-class backdoor agent by vigorously spraying fastballs that become his control along with the Doosan transfer. 메이저 토토사이트
Having played 347 innings for about 10 years since his professional debut in 2011 before being traded, Hong has achieved 254 innings in just four seasons since moving to the Doosan Bears. Starting with 68 ⅔ innings in the 2020 season, he played 74 ⅓ innings in 2021, 62 innings in 2022, and 61 ⅔ innings this year, securing his back door to Doosan. During the period, he earned 12 wins, 44 saves and 39 holds.
Hong was selected as the closing pitcher for Doosan’s Lee Seung-yeop this year, and even served as a back doorkeeper. Due to his poor performance, he gave way to Jung Cheol-won at the end of the season, but he expressed his outlook for the Stove League with a 3.06 ERA in 64 games with one win, five losses, 22 saves and five holds. Hong also served as Doosan’s pitching manager for three consecutive years from 2021.
