KBO regular-season champions Wiz reward manager with record contract
KT Wiz manager Lee Kang-chul addresses fans at KT Wiz Park in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, after clinching the Korea Baseball Organization regular-season title with a 9-0 win over the Lotte Giants, Oct. 5. Yonhap
The Korean baseball regular-season champions KT Wiz rewarded their manager, Lee Kang-chul, with a record contract Monday.
The Wiz said they signed Lee to a new three-year deal worth 3.4 billion won ($2.6 million), making him the highest-paid manager in Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) history. Lee will make 800 million won in annual salary and received a signing bonus of 1 billion won.
Lee's deal surpasses the three-year, 3 billion-won contract signed by the LG Twins skipper Youm Kyoung-youb last November.
Lee's previous three-year contract, which paid him 2.4 billion won, was set to expire after this season.
Lee has been at the Wiz's helm since 2019. He led the Wiz to their first postseason in 2020 and then to their first-ever Korean Series title in 2021.
This year, the Wiz won a franchise-record 90 games to finish first in the regular season and advance directly to the Korean Series, which will begin Nov. 2.
The Wiz made the postseason in six of Lee's eight seasons in charge. The 60-year-old has recorded 618 wins, 501 losses and 29 ties in 1,148 regular-season games with the Wiz.
Lee thanked the Wiz management for their support this season and for giving him such a lucrative deal.
"Our season is not over yet, and I will try to put the team at the top at the end," Lee said. "I will also try to develop this team into a perennial contender."