"Where is the owner treated like a hero? No one criticizes the owner even if he comes in last."

LG Twins manager Yeom Kyung-yeop has voiced his opposition to the salary cap system in professional baseball. This is because it is necessary to make active investments without meeting the Korean baseball situation to produce results and create a virtuous cycle.

Coach Yeom met with reporters at Hanwha Life Eagles Park in Daejeon on the 21st and talked about Choi Won-tae, who will qualify as a free agent after this year's season. For a coach who has to think about his starting resources, whether he will be able to catch Choi Won-tae is an important variable in his plan for next season. "If we want to catch him, we have to sign a contract after the first half in advance," Yeom said, implicitly indicating his intention to catch Choi Won-tae.

The story of a player's salary naturally led to a story about the salary cap system. "I have opposed salary cap since the front days," Yeom said. "Teams with poor performance should spend money to produce good performance in order to achieve a virtuous cycle."

The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) introduced the salary cap in a surprise move last year, citing an upward leveling of players' performance in the league. It decided to set an upper limit of the salary cap at 11.426 billion won (120 percent) or 120 percent of the annual average, which is the sum of the top 40 players (annual salary, actual payment of options, and annual down payment of free agents) for each club between 2021 and 2022, and apply the cap until 2025.

Clubs exceeding the salary cap are obliged to pay 50 percent of the excess in penalties for exceeding the first round. If the team exceeds the second round in a row, it will pay a fine equivalent to 100 percent of the excess, and the team's right to nominate a rookie for next year will fall by nine notches. If the team exceeds the third round in a row, it will pay 150 percent of the excess in penalties, and the team's right to nominate a rookie for next year will also fall by nine notches.

However, not a few teams have expressed opposition to salary cap in the field. It is because it is difficult to make active investments and there may be restrictions on moves to produce immediate results. Above all, some say that the pool of manpower does not suit the narrow Korean baseball environment. Clubs have also responded by flexibly adjusting the annual salary of players with long-term contracts in order not to exceed salary cap, overshadowing the original purpose of the system.

"Professional baseball should decide on policies based on future value, and changing policies based on profits will undermine the development of professional baseball," Yeom said. "We need to make an investment to increase the number of fans and increase their popularity to have self-sustaining power."

The KBO League, which relies heavily on its parent company, is weaker in self-sustainability than the U.S. Major League Baseball (MLB). Manager Yeom is in a position that active investment leads to the popularity of professional baseball and that can help the league's self-sustainability.

Recalling Hanwha Chairman Kim Seung-yeon's visit to the stadium on the 10th, he said, "When the presidents come to the ballpark, they are heroes, so where can they go to be treated like such heroes? There are no fans who are all favorable to the owners and curse the owners." Coach Yeom believes that active investment should be made so that fans can like it more, as there is no means to enjoy such promotional effects from the perspective of the group company. "If the popularity grows, we have self-sustaining power, and professional baseball teams reduce their deficit, we will be a big success. There is no reason not to do it because any group will be promoted if we only go to the main game," he said, stressing the need for league development through active investment.

BY: 메이저 토토사이트