Yang Eui-ji, the KBO salary king for the first time in 15 years from Doosan, how did it rise by 1.6 billion → 4.2 billion

*This content was translated by AI.

The 2026 KBO League 'annual salary king' is Doosan Bears catcher Yang Eui-ji (39). According to the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), Yang Eui-ji's annual salary this year is 4.2 billion won, the highest among 621 registered players from 10 clubs. As a Doosan player, he became the league's highest-paid player in 15 years since Kim Dong-ju in 2011.

What attracts attention is the amount of increase. It rose as much as 2.6 billion won from 1.6 billion won last year, setting a new KBO record. The previous record in this sector was Hanyu Island (SSG), which increased by 2.22 billion won (180 million won → 2.4 billion won) in 2022.

How did the salary increase so much. This is not because he ranked first in batting average (0.337) last year. The amount was already set when he signed a free agent (FA) contract with Doosan in November 2022. At that time, Doosan gave Yang Eui-ji, who returned from the NC Dinos, a huge contract of up to 15.2 billion won for 4+2 years. In terms of total amount, Kim Kwang-hyun's (SSG) was the highest ever, exceeding 15.1 billion won in four years.

It was a condition that 11 billion won (4.4 billion won in down payment, a total of 6.6 billion won in annual salary) was guaranteed for four years, and the player decided whether to extend the contract by up to 4.2 billion won for two years after the end of the 2026 season. However, the annual salary was different every year. Starting with 300 million won in 2023, the first year, it will receive 500 million won in 2024, 1.6 billion won in 2025, and 4.2 billion won in 2026.

The reason is interpreted as the club's salary cap. In the first year, he received a down payment of 4.4 billion won, so he chose to minimize his annual salary to 300 million won and increase the amount in consideration of the club's overall salary situation in the future.

Kim Kwang-hyun's case is for the same reason, but on the contrary, he received an annual salary of 8.1 billion won in 2022, the first year of the contract, more than half of the total amount (15.1 billion won). This remains the highest salary in KBO history, and Yang Eui-ji's 4.2 billion won is second place.

Looking at the highest-paid players by year since 2000, there have been more home run hitters than pitchers. Since 2005, Shim Jung-soo (Samsung) has taken over the position of "annual salary king" for four years, Kim Dong-ju (Doosan) for three years, Kim Tae-kyun (Hanwha) for five years, and Lee Dae-ho (Lotte) for four years.

Over the past 26 years, the amount has increased more than 10 to 20 times, from 310 million won for Jeong Min-tae (Hyundai) in 2000 to 8.1 billion won for Kim Kwang-hyun and 4.2 billion won for Yang Eui-ji. Yang Eui-ji is the second catcher to become the highest-paid player after Park Dong-won (LG) in 2024.

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*This content was translated by AI.