Is MLB discriminating against Korean players?
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Criticism mounting over plan to cap posting fee
By Baek Byung-yeul
With the highest number of Korean players playing for Major League Baseball (MLB) teams this season, criticism is mounting over the move to put a posting fee cap of $8 million on Korean players, about 40 percent of that for Japanese players.
According to the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), the MLB Commissioner’s Office suggested the posting fee cap for Korean players.
The governing body of the MLB said that nothing has been decided yet and it will further discuss the issue with the KBO teams and the KBO players’ union. The KBO must respond to the MLB by May 15.
Since 2001, MLB teams have had four days to submit their bids to win 30-day-long exclusive rights to negotiate with a KBO player.
The MLB and Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) agreed on a posting cap of $20 million in 2013. The first case of the limit was applied to Masahiro Tanaka’s transfer when the New York Yankees paid the $20 million posting fee to the Japanese pitcherformer team, the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.
Though there have been no posting restrictions yet, no KBO players had signed their MLB deals via posting due to a markedly low bid until former Hanwha Eagles pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin made a deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers for a posting fee of $25.72 million in 2012.
Following Ryu, the Pittsburgh Pirates won the bid for then-Nexen Heroes shortstop Kang Jung-ho with the highest bid of $5 million in 2014 and the Minnesota Twins won the bid for Kang’s teammate Park Byung-ho after bidding $12.85 million last year.
The local baseball community has raised questions over the posting limit applied to the KBO which is relatively lower compared to the NPB.
Although the KBO has a shorter history than the NPB, the Korean league has been witnessing significant improvements in international competitions in recent years — the Korean national baseball team mostly composed of KBO players won the gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, finished runner-up at the 2009 World Baseball Classic and won the inaugural World Baseball and Softball Confederation (WBSC) Premier12 last year.
If the KBO and the MLB agree to the $8 million cap on posting fees, it could draw different reactions from the KBO clubs and their players.
For the KBO players, they can sit at the negotiation table with whoever comes up with $8 million, which is relatively cheap compared to Japanese players on Japanese teams, consequently opening up more opportunities to join the majors.
But for the KBO clubs, the low posting fee cap is a losing game in many ways, as they could both lose their players and pocket less money than before.
Nexen Heroes manager Yeom Kyung-yup objected to the ongoing talks.
“Whether it’s $20 million or $8 million, there will be no difference in terms of the player’s salary,” Yeom said in a recent interview with local media.
Yeom said the higher posting fee can guarantee the players will play as regulars on their teams, adding that the higher posting fee can also allow the players to seize the initiative in negotiations.
“With the $8 million posting fee cap, the MLB clubs may not be active in the negotiating process. But if they invest $20 million or more on posting fees, that means they may consider the player an immediate regular and may be more desperate to ink a deal.”