The 2023 annual salary negotiations of the 10 KBO League clubs are going through pain everywhere. No club has announced that all negotiations have been concluded. With the passing of the year, there is a prospect that next week will be the final turning point.
Usually, clubs confirm the 2023 contract renewal targets (reserved players) in November, and then enter into annual salary negotiations in turn. As the final days of the season for the clubs are slightly different, the starting point is also slightly different, but first of all, in November, the second-team players, who do not have much room for negotiation, are painted. Then, from the middle to the end of November, negotiations with the first team players will begin in earnest. 스포츠토토
Players who conclude negotiations early will sign in early December, but players who do not will continue to renegotiate. Players who have not reached an agreement between mid-December and late December have already confirmed a fairly large gap, and it is common to take a break during the club’s closing period. And when the club retires in January, they sit at the negotiating table again.
In the past, there were many cases in which each club aimed to ‘conclude negotiations within the year’, but this is not the case now. This is because the start of the field training was postponed from January 15th to February 1st, giving us about 15 days more time. In addition, there are cases where the tug-of-war becomes longer as the agencies sit down at the negotiating table in earnest. Players also don’t take passing the year that seriously. Having a lot of personal schedules at the end of the year also causes the flow of negotiations to break.
Nevertheless, the reason why the salary negotiations have been particularly slow this year is that there are several reasons. Some teams have not been able to conclude negotiations because of non-FA multi-year contracts. In addition to Park Se-woong (Lotte), Koo Chang-mo (NC), and Oh Ji-hwan (LG), it is known that there are other players who have been offered a multi-year non-FA contract. On the one hand, as in the old story, there are cases where players cannot accept the amount set by the club. Some say that the negotiating table is frozen because there are still big differences.
The club has been busy, and next week, the final negotiation table for a final agreement is expected to take place at the same time in several clubs. The reason next week is important is because the deadline for salary adjustment applications is approaching. This year the deadline is January 10th at 6pm. It is known that players who do not negotiate well are even considering salary adjustments.
In the past, the application for salary adjustment ended with an overwhelming victory for the club, and there was a perception that the application would only blush with the club, so there were many cases that players did not take much into account. However, with the victory of sovereignty (kt) in 2021, which was the most recent case, the perception is changing little by little. In the meantime, clubs with a lot of data had an absolute advantage, but with the help of agencies, players armed with counterarguments are emerging one after another. In addition, it is true that the burden has been reduced as public opinion and awareness that it is a legitimate exercise of individual players’ rights has spread.
Even if you can’t finalize salary negotiations by January 10th, you don’t have to apply for salary adjustment. After that, negotiations can continue. However, if you decide to apply, you will have to look at the last offer from the club next week and make a decision. It is not easy to revise the existing amount significantly, as even clubs that calculate the amount of presentation through their own evaluation system have to consider fairness with players who have already concluded negotiations. It remains to be seen what the outcome will be.