Salary negotiations for prospective FA players of the KIA Tigers have not been completed yet. With the club open to the possibility of pursuing non-FA multi-year contracts, attention is focusing on who will remain in the team first among prospective FA players. 메이저놀이터

Kia will depart for Irvine, California, the U.S., where its 2025 season spring camp will be held. Kia has already completed its stokey stove league project by completing contracts for foreign players, FA contracts and trades. What's left is negotiations over salaries with some of its key players. 

The Kia team started negotiations with infielder Kim Do-young, who achieved the best performance in the 2024 season, as the last to start negotiations. Kim spent the best year of his career winning the MVP and Golden Glove at the same time. Salary negotiations with Kim, who contributed significantly to the team's overall win, are also Kia's biggest challenges. 

It is a fact that Lee Jung-hoo (San Francisco Giants), who already has the highest annual salary in his fourth year as a member of the Giants, has exceeded 330 million won (390,000 U.S. dollars). The key is whether his annual salary will exceed 500 million won (468,700 dollars) in his fourth year as a member of the Giants for the first time in history. 

In fact, it is known that salary negotiations are still underway with the 2026 FA players as well as Kim Do-young. Major players who will qualify for the 2026 FA at Kia include infielder Park Chan-ho, outfielder Choi Won-joon, and pitcher Cho Sang-woo. If all three players maintain their normal skills, Kia should seek to acquire these resources even after the end of the 2025 season. 

Park played in 134 games during the 2024 season, batting average of 0.307, 158 hits, five homers, 61 RBIs, 20 steals, on-base percentage of 0.363, and slugging percentage of 0.386. Park won the KBO Golden Glove for the first time since his debut. 

In 136 games during the 2024 season, Choi had a batting average of 0.292, 128 hits, nine homers, 56 RBIs, 21 steals, an on-base percentage of 0.371, and a slugging percentage of 0.420. Choi has firmly established himself as the main outfielder as he alternated between center field and right field. 

Cho finished the season early due to his shoulder injury in the 2024 season. However, he is capable of displaying capability as a closing pitcher at the national team level under the premise that he recovers his health and skills in the 2025 season. Jang Hyun-sik (transfer to LG Twins) could be the biggest plus factor beyond simply filling the vacancy in the KIA bullpen, which has left the team. 

All three players have factors that contribute to their salary increases. Park Chan-ho and Choi Won-joon received salaries of KRW 300 million and KRW 220 million, respectively, during the 2024 season. Cho Sang-woo received KRW 340 million from his former team, the Kiwoom Heroes. KIA has no choice but to consider salary increases considering preliminary FA and championship premium. After all, if there are no big variables, it is highly likely that Cho Sang-woo will be FA A grade, and Park Chan-ho and Choi Won-joon will be FA B grade. 

In this situation, Kia can make a "choice and focus" decision. The team is aiming to preempt one of the three players by signing a multi-year contract with a non-FA. As the Kia Tigers need to invest at least 5 billion won to 6 billion won (46.8 million U.S. dollars), the team should make a careful decision. "We will decide whether to sign a multi-year contract with a non-FA while looking at the future situation," a Kia official said. 

At the end of the 2023 season, Kia signed a non-FA multi-year contract worth 2.5 billion won (2.5 billion U.S. dollars) in total for three years with catcher Kim Tae-gun, who was then a reserve free agent at the time. The result was a huge success. Kim served as the starting catcher for the 2024 season, the first year of the multi-year contract, helping the team win the title overall. In the Korean Series, Kim also had a batting average of 0.353, six hits, one homer and seven RBIs in the series, including a grand slam. The Kia team expects Kim to play a pivotal role in the process of generational change of its team's catcher. 

As such, non-FA multi-year contracts are closely linked to the direction of long-term management of the team's players. It will be interesting to see whether KIA will decide to pursue non-FA multi-year contracts and who will be selected as the main character of the contract according to the team's long-term plan.