SOUTH KOREA – For the first time in the history of Korea’ professional baseball league, the number of players earning an annual salary of at least W100 million (US$1=W1,385) will reach 100. The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) released on Thursday information from the league’s eight franchises.

Out of 477 players registered by the league, 99 of these athletes will earn W100 million or more this upcoming season. The KBO, which has increased the number of regular season games from 126 to 133, will get underway on April 4.

Three players – Lotte Giants’ Kang Min-ho and Kim Joo-chan, and Heroes’ Cha Hwa-joon – have yet to finalize deals with their clubs and were excluded from the list. However, Kang earned W100 million in 2008 and will become the league’s 100th player to reach the magical nine-digits per year salary.

The data also showed that the average annual salary of registered players, not including rookies and foreigners, increased W4.75 million from last season to W84.17 million.

The Samsung Lions ranked first in terms of average pay by team for a fifth consecutive year with W193 million while the Heroes avrage salary was the lowest at W69.22 million. The Doosan Bears’ Kim Dong-joo along with the Giants’ Son Min-han and Yang Jun-hyuk of the Samsung Lions are the highest-paid players in the KBO with a W700 million salary.

Kim Kwang-hyun, a pitcher for the reigning league champion SK Wyverns who earned W40 million last year, received the largest increase in Korean baseball history when he renewed his contract for W130 million. Hanwha Eagles’ staff ace Ryu Hyun-jin set the record in 2007 when his salary rose 400 percent from W20 million to W100 million.

Tags: South Korea