By Kang Seung-woo
Staff Reporter

Power-hitting first baseman Kim Tae-kyun has joined the Chiba Lotte Marines.

The Japanese baseball club announced Friday that it had landed the 27-year-old, the biggest name on this year's free agent market of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), to a 550 million yen (seven billion won), three-year deal.

But he will be awarded bonuses up to 700 million yen according to his performance.

"Since the beginning of this past season, I have thought about playing abroad and I am glad to achieve the goal,'' Kim said during a press conference in Seoul on the same day.

"Along with a good deal that the Marines offered, Lee Seung-yeop whom I respect much played for the team, so I have decided to sign with the Marines with hopes of performing well like him.

"I believe that if I play a full season next year without any injury, I expect to put up solid numbers."

The Marines had shown a lot of interest in Kim, enough to send their representatives, including team President Ryuzo Setoyama, to Korea, and they signed the right-handed hitter to the contract early Friday morning after Kim and the Hanwha Eagles, Kim's former team, failed to reach an agreement Thursday.

The Daejeon-based team offered him six billion won for four years.

Moving to the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), Kim has become the 11th KBO player to join the neighboring league, and the fourth active one alongside Lee Seung-yeop of the Yomiuri Giants, and Lim Chang-yong and Lee Hey-chun of the Yakult Swallows.

The Pacific League team was founded in 1950 and won the maiden Japan Series the same season.

Since then, the Marines have gathered two more trophies in 1974 and 2005.

Chiba is well known to Korean baseball fans as Lee Seung-yeop began his NPB career in the city, 40 kilometers east of Tokyo, in 2004 and played for the team, then headed by former New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine, for two years.

After finishing fifth this past season, the Marines, which dismissed Valentine, have brought in Norifumi Nishimura as the new manager, and had been looking for a slugger.

Kim stood out at the second World Baseball Classic (WBC) in March, batting .345 with three home runs and 11 RBIs.

And along with his big stroke, his solid glove at first base has drawn interest from several teams in Japan.

Kim, who entered the majors in 2001 with the Eagles, has posted 188 homers and driven in 701 RBIs with a career batting average of .310.

In his first season in the KBO, Kim had 20 dingers while batting .335 to earn rookie of the year honors, and he has had six 20-or-more home run seasons.

Despite a concussion that he suffered early last season, he batted .330 with 19 long balls and 62 RBIs.

ksw@koreatimes.co.kr