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| KT Wiz pitcher Sovereignty applied for a salary adjustment after nine years. News1 © News1 Reporter Jinhwan Kim |
Attempt in 9 years. Will KT Wiz’s bullpen pitcher Sovereignty (26) overcome the gap of 30 million won?
On the 11th, Sovereignty submitted an application for 2021 annual salary adjustment to the Korean Baseball Commission (KBO). The sovereignty, which received 150 million won last year, claimed an increase of 100 million won to 250 million won, but the KT club offered 220 million won. The difference between the two sides was 30 million won, and in the end, no agreement was found.
In the end, both sides decided to listen to the decision of the KBO Mediation Committee. KBO explained, “The sovereign players and KT clubs must each submit supporting data for calculating the desired annual salary by 6 pm on the 18th.”
“If either party does not submit the data by the date, the mediation will be deemed to have been abandoned and the mediation will be adjusted to the one that submitted the documents. If neither the player nor the club submit data by the deadline, the mediation application is deemed to have been withdrawn.” He added.
It has been nine years since Dae-Hyung Lee (LG at the time) in 2012 that a KBO League player applied for an annual salary adjustment. However, in the case of Lee Dae-hyung, the application was withdrawn before the conciliation committee was held.
If the actual coordination committee is held, it has been 10 years. Lee Dae-ho (Lotte) in 2011 was the main character. At the time, Lee Dae-ho, who won the 7th hitting crown, demanded 700 million won, an increase of 310 million won, and the club offered 630 million won. The coordination committee gave the club a hand.
There were 97 applications for the Professional Baseball Salary Mediation Committee, and 20 of them were actually held.
Only one of them has won. In 2002, the protagonist was LG Ryu Ji-hyun (currently the LG Twins director), who claimed 200 million won and confronted the club that offered 190 million won. The steering committee accepted the player’s claim.
As for sovereignty, he is challenging the player’s victory case after 19 years. It seems to have been judged to be sufficiently competitive in terms of performance and contributions.
Sovereignty, who has established itself as a key victory group of KT, debuted in 2015 and has been active in earnest from the following year. Sovereignty, who had been between the starters and the bullpen, settled in the bullpen from 2017, and in 2019 and 2020, they played more than 70 games each, increasing their weight.
In the 2020 season, he started in 77 games and won an average ERA of 2.70 with an average ERA of 6-2 and 31, making him known as a top-notch bullpen pitcher. At one time, there was a sense of presence that the fans were worried about,’Isn’t it too much?’