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Park Byung-ho opts for Big League dream over salary

Posted December. 03, 2015 10:04,   

한국어

“Baseball is too much of a sport to be a business and too much of a business to be a sport.” (Philip Wrigley)

When a Major League team recruits a free agent, the factor that it most highly regards is "ticket power." The Minnesota Twins have decided to invest in Park Byung-ho (29) in order to seek the Korean market, but no team showing interest in Eric Thames (29) is attributable to more than anything difference ticket power. In the Major League, however, outstanding performance and skills a pitcher displays, his salary can never exceed that of sluggers who can play every day. In fact, of the 10 players who have garnered the highest amounts of contract ever in the Major League, only two are pitchers, taking eighth and ninth spots in the rankings of contract value.

These include David Price (30), a left-handed pitcher who just signed an FA contract on Wednesday with the Boston Red Sox for 217 million U.S. dollars, the biggest contract ever for a pitcher. Before then, Clayton Kershaw (27, Los Angeles Dodgers) was the only pitcher on the top 10 list. The three highest-paid pitchers in the Major League including Max Scherzer (31, Washington Nationals), who signed a 210 million-dollar contract, are all starting pitchers.

The situation in Korea is quite the opposite. Six of the 10 highest-paid players are pitchers and two are relief pitchers. Hanwha Eagles pitcher Esmil Rogers (30) has renewed Wednesday his contract for 1.9 million dollars, the highest salary ever paid to an expat player in Korea. This is good evidence that Korean baseball teams are evaluating players based on criteria that are different from those used by Major League teams. If players are evaluated based on ticket power in Korea as well, it is more appropriate that starting pitchers are paid more.

Games at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in which Chang Won-joon (30) of the Doosan Bears started in this season attracted 16,125 spectators on average, a number that was 564 more than the average (15,561) for the season. When estimating earnings based on average per-spectator income for Doosan, Chang earned his team 95.43 million won (82,000 dollars) in ticket sales alone in this season.

The processes through which players are paid annual salary are also different. When Major Leaguers are paid annual salary, they should settle tax, agents’ fees, and management fees first. Choo Shin-soo (33, Texas Rangers) said, “I take with me 47 percent of the total amount.” A foreign player who is playing in the Japanese league should pay 20 percent of his annual salary as tax until the second year and 25 percent as tax thereafter. Foreign players cannot report their contract that is marked down from its actual value, because their tax rate jump to 40 percent if they get caught after failing to accurately report terms of contact to tax authorities.

In contrast, it is often publicly rumored that when a team recruits a foreign player or a free agent in Korea, the value of contract publicized is the after-tax amount. It is also common that the team provides residence to foreign players as well. Hanwha even paid Rodgers medical expenses for treating his mother’s shoulder last year. Chances are high that Rogers, who was reportedly sought after by Japan’s Yomiuri Giants as well, must have chosen to renew his contract with Hanwha not because of his long-term relationship with the team, but because of his compensation.



kini@donga.com