Perhaps this is why Kia has yet to renew its contract with the Kia Tigers. It has been reported that South Korean pitcher Socrates Brito (32), a foreign hitter at Kia, is drawing keen attention from Major League teams.
John Heyman of the U.S. “New York Post” drew attention by referring to Socrates on his SNS on the 30th (Korean time).
“Several major league teams have expressed their interest in Socrates,” Heyman said. “He had a batting average of .310, an on-base percentage of .359 and a slugging percentage of .516 with the KIA Tigers, the champion of the KBO League this year. It was his third season in Korea.”
Socrates, who wore the KIA uniform in 2022, had a batting average of .227 with one homer, nine RBIs and one stolen base until April of that year, but he exploded with .415 with five homers, 28 RBIs and three steals in May alone, quelling public opinion about his exit and successfully renewing his contract with a batting average of .311 with 17 homers, 77 RBIs and 12 steals in 127 games. Socrates, who left a batting average of .285 with 20 homers, 96 RBIs and 15 steals in 142 games last year, accompanied KIA this year as well, and contributed to KIA’s overall victory by hitting .310 with 26 homers, 97 RBIs and 13 steals in 140 games.
Notably, he also hit a wedge-shaped homer in this year’s Korean Series. Socrates exploded with a two-run homer in the top of the sixth inning in the fourth game of the Korean Series against the Samsung Lions, giving his team a 9-2 lead. KIA won the match 9-2 and recorded three wins and one loss overall in the series, effectively securing the championship title. Socrates played a batting average of .300 (six hits in 20 at-bats) with one homer and five RBIs in the first to fifth games of the Korean Series.
Socrates’ overall performance in the KBO league was .302 with 63 home runs, 270 RBIs and 40 steals in 409 games. He has displayed substantial performance over the past three years. However, it is uncertain whether KIA and Socrates will join the team next year. KIA is currently keeping an eye on the foreign hitter market. If there is a better hitter than Socrates, it will consider replacing foreign hitter. However, he did not completely give up on Socrates. 먹튀검증
Currently, Kia has only renewed its contract with foreign pitcher James Nail. The deal reached between Kia and Nail totaled 1.8 million U.S. dollars. As a result, Kia’s contract ceiling for three foreign players has increased from 4 million dollars to 4.1 million dollars. If Kia re-signs with Socrates, the contract ceiling for three foreign players could rise to 4.4 million dollars.
Kia and Socrates agreed to renew the contract after the end of the last season, totaling 1.2 million U.S. dollars. Therefore, assuming that Kia recruits a new foreign pitcher instead of Eric Lauer, it can pay Socrates up to 1.6 million dollars. This is because the cap on the total amount of new foreign players is 1 million dollars.
The question is whether Kia is willing to invest that much in Socrates. Kia should have time to choose whether to inject a new foreign hitter with up to 1 million U.S. dollars, or to accompany Socrates with a proven track record. As Heyman said, Socrates will likely agonize over whether to remain in Korea or go to the U.S. once Major League teams’ interests surface.
