Na Seongbeom waiting for a contract while training in LA, Boras time unfolds

NC Dinos Na Seong-beom is responding to the cheers of the dugout by calling in the first third base runner from 0-0 in the match against Doosan in the first leg of the Korean Series held at Gocheok Sky in Seoul on the 17th. 17 November 2020 Reporter Dohoon Kim [email protected]

[스포츠서울 윤세호기자] I have to go all the way. That’s the market situation. Both Korean and Japanese players who are pushing forward to advance to the big leagues through postings struck multiple camps until the last minute. Arihara Kohei, who signed with Texas on the 25th of last month, and Ha-sung Kim, who signed with San Diego on the 1st, both made a decision after waiting for the best offer until the deadline. The same goes for Japanese professional baseball Yomiuri Ace Sugano Tomoyuki. Sugano is expected to wait until the posting contract deadline at 7am on the 8th (5pm EST on the 7th) and choose the offer that is most satisfactory.

Na Seong-beom, 31, who looks at the big leagues like them, is no different. The deadline for Na Seongbeom’s posting contract is 7am on the 10th (5pm on the 9th EST). Like Arihara, Kim Ha-sung, and Sugano, Na Seong-beom has already moved to the United States to prepare for a contract. An official from the NC team said, “On the 28th of last month, Na Seongbeom headed to Los Angeles, USA. As in the past, he is doing personal training at the Boras Corporation facility. It seems that he left Korea with both posting and personal training.” In fact, Na Seong-beom got help from Boras every winter after signing with big league agent Scott Boras. In addition to training with big league players, repairs after knee surgery were also conducted at the Boras Corporation facility.

This year’s Major League (ML) offseason is going slower than ever. None of the biggest contractors with more than $100 million in contracts, including Trevor Bauer, George Springer, and JT Realmuto, have signed the contract. This is the opposite of what Gerrit Cole, Steven Strasburg, Jack Willer, and Ryu Hyun-jin signed a large contract side by side before and after the winter meeting a year ago. There is a trend of players entering the ML with postings such as Arihara and Kim Ha-seong to sign contracts according to the deadline. Like Japanese outfielder Haruki Nishikawa, there are cases where he couldn’t sign a post contract and made a U-turn.

Maybe we need to recreate the brutality of Ryu Hyun-jin and Boras about seven years ago. In December 2012, Ryu Hyun-jin and Boras removed the minor league option after having a tug-of-war with the Los Angeles Dodgers until the deadline. In addition to the six-year contract of $36 million in the major leagues, the option to go to minor leagues was excluded, which was a big part of Ryu’s success in the big leagues. When he returned after shoulder surgery in 2015, Ryu Hyun-jin was guaranteed to return to the big league, and played minor league games only for the purpose of rehabilitation. At the negotiating table at the time, Boras pressured the Dodgers club, saying that Ryu Hyun-jin could go to Japanese professional baseball instead of ML.

The contract is the player’s position. The larger the contract size and the more advantageous provisions for players, the easier it is to adapt to the big leagues. Although it is difficult to expect a contract on the scale of Ha-Sung Kim, it is important to secure a position of himself to some extent even if the contract period is short and the amount is rather low. If the contract deadline Boras Time unfolds, the possibility of Na Sung-beom’s adaptation to the big leagues will increase.

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