‘Korean baseball gold medal’ Just as Hanwha’s Wang Yencheng is protected, clubs can also demand ‘domestic player’ protection… Clubs with rosters featuring players earning 5.4 billion won in salaries are ‘suffering silently’ [Ryu Sun-gyu’s Bizball]

*This content was translated by AI.

Korean baseball won the gold medal at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games. By defeating Japan 3-1 in the final, South Korea claimed the top spot for the fifth consecutive time. Since baseball was adopted as an official event at the 1994 Hiroshima Games, nine Asian Games have featured baseball up to this tournament. South Korea has won seven times, while Japan and Taiwan each reached the summit once. Given that the players had to overcome the pressure of winning gold, the moment of victory deserves full celebration.

However, fans’ views are complex. Japan fielded a team composed of amateur players rather than professionals, and Taiwan also failed to assemble its full strength due to restrictions on the participation of overseas professional players. In contrast, South Korea called up key players from the KBO League. Despite this, South Korea lost 0-5 to Japan in the Super Round and had to wait until the eighth inning to turn the tide against Japan in the final, having been tied 1-1 through seven innings. Voices are emerging questioning whether the tournament was fair, considering the disparity in national team strength alongside military service benefits. In particular, criticism continues, especially among younger fans, that the threshold for receiving military service exemptions is too low relative to the level of performance.

The author would like to add another fairness issue to this discussion. Players who won gold medals are credited with days toward free agent (FA) registration eligibility according to regulations, and players with remaining military service obligations also receive military benefits. On the other hand, the clubs that sent their players to the national team suffer silently while bearing the losses from the call-ups. This is because they must continue to pay player salaries while hoping only that the players return from the tournament without injury.

This tournament was held without pausing the regular season, similar to the 2023 Hangzhou Games. During a period when standings and postseason qualification were at stake, each club sent one to three starting-level players to the national team for about two weeks. The total annual salaries of the 24th members of the national team amount to 5.429 billion won. Assuming a salary calculation basis of 300 days, a simple conversion of the 14th-day call-up period yields approximately 253.35 million won. Dividing this equally among the 10th clubs means each club bears an average cost of about 25.34 million won. From the clubs’ perspective, there is an ‘invisible’ cost associated with player call-ups.

There were also scenes in this tournament where home clubs must have breathed a sigh of relief. Doosan Bears ace Kwak Bin pitched 6⅓ innings against Japan in the final, throwing 111 pitches to limit them to one run. It was a stellar performance that laid the foundation for the gold medal. However, 111 pitches is close to Kwak Bin’s single-game career high of 113 pitches in the KBO League this season. The game was also played in the rain. As the national team manager, he would have entrusted the ball to his most reliable pitcher in a final where gold was on the line. However, the Doosan club watching the same scene likely did not feel at ease.

SSG Landers closer Cho Byung-hyun is in a similar situation. SSG had been managing him carefully by refraining from assigning him more than one inning since June 18. However, Cho Byung-hyun pitched two innings against Taiwan in the group stage and entered the game in the seventh inning of the final, guarding the mound through the eighth inning. Although he recorded three outs over two innings, which officially counts as one inning, Cho Byung-hyun had never pitched two innings in a single game in the KBO League last year or this year. National team games are always short series, and there is a strong temptation to use reliable pitchers more often in close matches. But for clubs, the season continues after the players return. The national team’s day and the club’s remaining season hang on the shoulders of the same player.

In contrast, in the case of Wang Yencheng, who joined the Taiwan national team as a member of the Hanwha Eagles, the criteria for player usage were discussed in advance between the Hanwha club and the Taiwan national team. Tang Deng-kai, the Taiwan manager, revealed that Hanwha had discussed Wang Yencheng’s pitching conditions with the Taiwanese side ahead of the group stage match against South Korea. Local media in Taiwan also cited consultations with the Hanwha club regarding pitch counts and player protection as the reason why Wang Yencheng did not start against South Korea. The notable aspect of this case is that a KBO club consulted in advance on the usage conditions of its player with a foreign national team. If so, could home clubs present similar criteria when sending players to the South Korean national team?

Institutional compensation for protecting national team players has already been established. After Doosan Bears infielder Kim Dong-ju injured his shoulder at the 2006 World Baseball Classic (WBC), the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) resolved to compensate players who missed regular season games due to injuries sustained during tournaments by crediting a portion of their FA registration days. This was applied retroactively to Kim Dong-ju, recognizing half of the 124th days he could not register due to injury, which amounted to 62 days. It was a measure to ensure that players injured while serving as national representatives suffered less disadvantage in acquiring FA eligibility. Subsequently, compensation for FA registration days based on participation in international tournaments has continued, providing significant help in players’ acquisition of eligibility. Compensation for players participating in international tournaments is largely institutionalized.

However, even 20 years later, it is difficult to find institutional discussions that consider the position of clubs bearing all the burdens of salaries, regular season strength loss, and injury risk. Given that the KBO League has surpassed 10 million spectators for three consecutive years and player market values have risen significantly, national team call-ups should not be viewed merely as an obligatory duty of the clubs.

Of course, it is not easy for clubs to set separate conditions for each player. Doing so could destabilize the operation of the national team. What is needed is a common standard created together by the KBO, the clubs, and the national team. If the tournament is held during the regular season, there is an even greater need to agree in advance on criteria such as pitch counts and minimum rest days for starting pitchers, and consecutive pitching and multi-inning standards for relief pitchers.

Players who compete wearing the Taegeuk mark must certainly be respected. At the same time, the burden of professional clubs that develop players, pay their salaries, and endure long seasons together should not be ignored. The era when club costs and risks were taken for granted solely on the basis of patriotism is over. This is especially true if the KBO League is a ‘true’ professional league.

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*This content was translated by AI.