Lee Byung-kyu (aged 50), manager of LG Twins Futures, received an important mission as soon as he returned to his former team after three years. It plays a big role in selecting compensation players for Choi Won-tae, who moved to the Samsung Lions as a free agent. 스포츠토토
On the morning of the 10th, LG was handed over a list of protected players (20 players) from Samsung. This is the follow-up phase of the four-year FA contract with Choi Wontae on the 6th, which includes up to 7 billion won (including 1.2 billion won in incentives). As Choi is an “FA A” grade, Samsung is required to compensate LG for 200 percent of this season’s salary (400 million won) and one compensation player or 300 percent of its annual salary, in addition to the 20 protected players. LG plans to hire 200 percent of annual salary and one compensation player.
As the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) announced Choi Won-tae’s FA contract on the 8th, the deadline for submitting Samsung’s list of protected players was until the 11th.
Samsung completed submitting the list on Wednesday, a day earlier. Since the FA negotiations with Choi Won-tae took place dozens of simulations of the list of protected players, there was nothing more to worry about. Attention was also drawn to whether some veterans, including Oh Seung-hwan, will be included in the list, with some specifically mentioned names of players. In an unusual move, Samsung announced that it would put Oh on the list. In part, the team handed over the list of protected players early to prevent any controversy.
“It is hard for Lee Byung-kyu to go back to LG and hide something. We are learning about our players one after another,” a Samsung official said.
Lee Byung-kyu, LG’s flagship franchise star, started his career as a coach at LG. Since 2018, Lee has been in charge of hitting in the primary, secondary, and nurturing teams at LG. He terminated his contract with LG after the 2022 season. He has been with Samsung for two years since then. Lee was appointed as Samsung’s chief coach in 2023 at the suggestion of Samsung coach Park Jin-man. At that time, TV cameras caught him playing with players in the dugout without hesitation. However, he moved to the secondary team amid the team’s sudden notification during the All-Star break in July this year, and was informed that he could not renew his contract after the end of the season.
LG then reached out again. LG judged that Lee Byung-kyu has improved his leadership skills by working for Geelong Korea and Samsung in Australia. “It feels like I’m back home after coming back to LG. I want to increase the value of the players in the second division,” Lee said. “I want to create a fun and fun atmosphere in the stadium.”
LG has high expectations from Lee Byung-kyu when it comes to selecting players for compensation. LG also has plenty of analysis data on Samsung’s first team players. However, the list of players with compensation other than 20 players does not include many players in the second team or promising players. There is not much information on them. As Lee Byung-kyu was in charge of both Samsung’s first and second teams, he is bound to be more intelligent than anyone else. Samsung is also wary of such issues.
