SEOUL– The South Korean baseball league announced Tuesday it has adjusted the salary cap rules on foreign players to give clubs more flexibility in retaining stars.

The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) said the new set of rules will take effect in 2023.

Teams are each allowed to sign up to three foreign players, and they must do so with no more than US$4 million in their combined salaries. Under the latest changes, teams re-signing a foreign player will be able to go $100,000 over the cap per year based on the player’s KBO stint.
For instance, if a team wants to keep a foreign player for a fifth year, that team will be allowed to go $400,000 over the cap, because it will be that player’s fourth new deal following the initial contract.

This will benefit clubs with foreign players who enjoy long and successful careers in the KBO and who might otherwise have become too expensive for their original teams to re-sign.

The cap on all first-year foreign players will stay at $1 million.

A team violating the cap for the first time must pay 50 percent of the amount that exceeds the cap. A second-time offender must pay the same amount of money as the excess and drop nine spots in the second round of the following year’s rookie draft.

Teams who exceed the cap for a third time and beyond must pay 1.5 times the amount of the money that goes over the cap and fall nine spots in the second round of the next draft.

Source: Yonhap News Agency