Renewing contracts with foreign baseball players ends on Friday

The deadline for renewing contracts with foreign baseball players are four days ahead, and Korean baseball teams are still contemplating over their global mercenaries. Indeed, a team's final rank is decided upon diligent foreign starters and sluggers who will make it to the last game of the over six-month regular season.

For starters, all eyes are on the next move NC Dinos' slugger Thames will take. With the most homeruns (40) this season and a total of 124 homers hit for Dinos for the last three seasons, Thames is the most sought-after player in Japan and the U.S. The Japanese Softbank is currently sending a strong signal to Thames, whereas the U.S. Tampa Bay is also interested in him. Though the NC Dinos will be desperate to retain their slugger, it will also be uneasy for them to meet the demands made by Thames once his price skyrockets after several rounds of bids from other teams. Therefore, NC is currently coming up with a short list and looking for his replacement based on the premise that Thames leaves Korea.

The Samsung Lions refused to renew the contract with global players this upcoming season, but is keeping an eye on Favian Navarro who was kicked out from the Japanese Chiba Lotte Marines. As a foreign hitter who already played for Samsung in 2014 and 2015 seasons, he proved himself as a steady 2nd baseman by recording 79 homeruns. While Japanese fans were disappointed by his below-expectations results with .217 of batting average and ten homers, he is still an attractive player for Lions. As a matter of fact, the new Samsung coach Kim Han-su is clearly interested in Navarro. Two Samsung scouters flew to Dominican Republic where Navarro lived, in an aim to achieve two goals; to check the players playing the winter league, and to check how well Navarro is doing physically. In fact, was at the center of attention when he was arrested for possessing ammunition at the airport, and was banned for the first several games at the last season.

Former LG Twins pitcher Leeds who played during the 2011-2013 seasons is also drawing attention, as he was recently ousted from the Japanese Rakuten and is now in the hands of LG to decide. However, it was known that LG is not showing keen interest in him, as they already renewed the contracts with all the current team members. Leed's elbow injury which forced him to quit the season earlier than expected also holds bigger risks. The pitcher who threw fast balls up to 160km/h has currently updated his career status as a pitcher at the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Meanwhile, recruitment for global mercenaries is expected to gain heat once the domestic Free Agent (FA) market closes. As most Korean teams will be aiming for the biggest fish in the FA market, it remains to be seen which new foreign player will play for Korean teams.

Hong-Gu Kang windup@donga.com