As time has passed, the time has come to decide the fate of +3 with 4+3 years maximum of 8.5 billion won (approx. What choice will Doosan Bears’ flagship third baseman Huh Kyung-min make.
Huh Kyung-min, who exercised his first career FA right after the 2020 season, signed an FA contract with his original team Doosan Bears on December 10, 2020. The condition is 4+3 years, and he received a total of 6.5 billion won, including 2.5 billion won in down payment and 4 billion won in annual salary, and four years later, he added a player option clause of 3 years and 2 billion won for the first time in the Doosan team.
As of then, Huh Kyung-min has marked a milestone in the history of Doosan and KBO. He broke the record of Doosan’s FA contract exceeding Jang Won-jun’s four-year and 8.4 billion won (8.3 million U.S. dollars) in 2014, and became the longest FA contractor, exceeding six years for Jung Soo-geun (Lotte Giants) in 2004 and Choi Jeong (SK Wyverns) in 2018.
In the four years since signing the contract as an FA, Heo has played in 502 games with a batting average of 286 (four99 hits in 1,746) and 27 homers, 228 RBIs, 29 steals, and 233 runs scored. He has an OPS of .743 by adding a slugging percentage of .391 and an on-base percentage of .352. In the first year of his contract, he has contributed greatly to his journey to the mirror-cleaning game from the wild card game to the Korean Series, and led his team to return to the autumn stage for the first time in two years along with Lee Seung-yeop, who took the helm as the captain of the 2023 season.
In the final year of his four-year FA contract, Huh Kyung-min recorded a batting average of 399 runs, 129 hits, seven homers, 61 RBIs, five steals, 69 runs, and OPS.811. Despite various injury factors such as fine damage to the right shoulder and a dislocation of the little finger, he played 477 at-bats in offense and 883 innings in defense, showing the best performance of his four-year FA contract.
As was the case before signing the contract with the FA, Heo became a paragon for others even outside the stadium. He gained trust from coaching staff and colleagues by banking on his unique diligence and thorough self-management. He thus received a passing score in leadership while serving as captain. 먹튀검증
Four years have already passed and Huh Kyung-min has come to a moment of choice again. Four years ago, if you were agonizing over contract proposals from multiple clubs, including Doosan, as the biggest fish in the fielders FA, you should decide on the player option first this year.
In other words, a player option is a structure in which a player, not a club, takes the initiative in renewing his contract after a four-year contract is completed. If Huh Kyung-min wants to stay at Doosan after the end of the 2024 season, he will receive an additional 2 billion won (25.6 million U.S. dollars) for three years, and if he wants a higher amount, he will be able to declare himself an “FA” and be valued again in the market. Another option is to sign an FA contract with Doosan again to declare himself a lifetime Doosan man on a condition that is better than 2 billion won (25.6 million dollars) for three years.
The FA infielders that stand out in the upcoming stove league are Choi Jung, Shim Woo-joon, Oh Jae-il and Choi Joo-hwan. If Heo Kyung-min declares FA, it can quickly emerge as the biggest fish, but most of the 10 teams have a clear starting third baseman, and Heo Kyung-min will turn 35 next year.
Given recent contract cases, however, there is a possibility that Ahn Chi-hong and Yang Seok-hwan, two veteran infielders, each of whom garnered more than 7 billion won (6.37 million U.S. dollars) in the free agent market last year, successfully signed a three-year, three-billion-won contract with Kia. Given their extraordinary work ethic and performance this year, there is no law that bans Huh from signing similar contracts.
Will he stay at Doosan? Or will it be his second free agent declaration? Attention is already focusing on the direction in which Doosan’s first player option will flow. Everything depends on Huh Kyung-min.
