Park Chan-ho, Choi Hee-seop, Seo Jae-eung, Ryu Hyun-jin and Kim Hye-sung...Dodgers cement 'national club' position
Park Chan-ho, Choi Hee-seop, Seo Jae-eung, Ryu Hyun-jin and Kim Hye-sung...Dodgers cement 'national club' position
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Following Park Chan-ho, Choi Hee-sup, Seo Jae-eung and Ryu Hyun-jin, Kim Hye-sung also joined the LA Dodgers. Having already attracted many Korean fans, the Dodgers has solidified its position as the "people's team."
According to major foreign media such as AFP, Kim Hye-sung signed a contract with the Dodgers on the 4th (Korea Standard Time) for up to 22 million dollars (about 32.4 billion won) for 3+2 years.먹튀검증
Kim will be guaranteed 12.5 million U.S. dollars for three years from this year to 2027, and will have a team option to extend her two-year contract thereafter. According to the Dodgers' decision, she will receive 9.5 million dollars for the next two years.
The Dodgers are very familiar to Korean fans. Park Chan-ho, a Korean Major Leaguer's pioneer, has been with the team for a long time.
Park signed a contract with the Dodgers in 1994 when he was a student at Hanyang University, and continued his career until 2001. Since joining the starting rotation in earnest in 1997, Park has continued to display stellar performance by garnering double-digit wins for five consecutive years.
Park Chan-ho's second heyday started with the Dodgers as well. After becoming a free agent, he moved to the Texas Rangers, but failed to meet expectations, and in 2008, he joined the Dodgers again after playing for the San Diego Padres and the New York Mets and became a bullpen pitcher. Park has since been a big leaguer for the Philadelphia Phillies, New York Yankees, and Pittsburgh Pirates.
From 2002 to 2007, when Park Chan-ho was away for a while, another Korean major leaguers Choi Hee-seop and Seo Jae-ung wore Dodgers uniforms. Choi Hee-seop, the first Korean big leaguer hitter, was in the team from 2004 to 2005, and Seo Jae-ung briefly played for the Dodgers in 2006.
It was Korean Monster Ryu Hyun-jin (Hanwha) who re-enacted Park's honor with the Dodgers. Having been the best pitcher in the KBO League since his debut in 2006, he entered the Major League in 2013 through the posting system.
Despite being skeptical of his entry into the Major League at the time when the KBO League had a poor reputation, the Dodgers surprised everyone by offering a huge transfer fee of $25.737,737.33 (W8,700). This amount is still the highest transfer fee for Korean Major Leaguers.
While playing for the Dodgers until 2019, Ryu Hyun-jin recorded three double-digit wins. He successfully returned after nearly two seasons of postoperative rehabilitation, and became the first Asian to rank No. 1 in the National League ERA in 2019.
Ryu Hyun-jin also qualified as an FA and continued his career with the Toronto Blue Jays for four years, and returned to Hanwha, the "friendly team" for the first time in 12 years last year.
Kim Hye-sung will join the Dodgers uniform following his prominent seniors. He is the second batter to directly move from the KBO League after Ryu Hyun-jin, and the second batter to be wearing the Dodgers uniform after Choi Hee-sup.
Of course, a fierce competition for survival is expected. The Dodgers has been attracting star players by making aggressive investments in recent years. It won the World Series title last year, and is expected to break the record of 116 wins in the regular season this year.
There are only three former MVP players, including superstar Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, and Mookie Betts, and the starting team also recruited Blake Snell from the Cy Young Award in the offseason to Ohtani, Yamamoto Yoshinobu, and Tyler Glasnow.
It is known that he is also leading the competition for the recruitment of Japanese pitcher Rocky Sasaki, who is drawing great attention in the offseason.
Once Kim Hye-sung survives the 26-man roster, he is likely to be used as a "utility player." Kim Hye-sung mainly served as second baseman in the KBO League, but has experience playing shortstop, third baseman and outfielder.
Dodgers plans to use Mookie Betts, an MVP, as its shortstop and Gavin Lux as its main players, and Tommy Edman, another infielder, as its outfielder. Kim Hye-sung is expected to compete with Chris Taylor and Miguel Rojas for backup infielders.