Coming off the best season of his career, South Korean Major League Baseball player Choo Shin-soo received a huge raise for the upcoming season.
The Cleveland Indians outfielder reached a one-year deal worth US$3.975 million Wednesday, Korean time. The left-handed Choo put up the best numbers of his six-year major league career in 2010 while making $461,100, slightly above the major league minimum.
Last season, Choo hit for a .300 batting average and set career highs with 22 home runs, 90 runs batted in, 22 steals and a .401 on-base percentage. He is the first Indians player since 1901 to have back-to-back seasons of at least a .300 batting average, 20 home runs and 20 steals.
With the signing, the Indians and Choo avoided going to salary arbitration. Choo filed for arbitration last weekend and would have been the first Cleveland player since 1991 to take the team to an arbitration court.
Choo's contract situation had been one of the hotly discussed topics this offseason for the Indians. The 28-year-old is considered an important piece to the puzzle as the Indians, who have had two losing seasons in a row, try to rebuild for the future.
Scott Boras, Choo's agent, had been seeking a series of one-year deals until Choo becomes a free agent after the 2013 season. But the Indians have been trying to lock him down with a long-term contract beyond 2013, without risking losing Choo to free agency.
The logic on the player's side is that Choo, in the prime of his career, could see his stock rise further over the next three or four seasons and could earn more money by signing a free agent deal in 2014 than by agreeing to a long-term deal now.
Despite the signing of the one-year deal, Chris Antonetti, the Indians' general manager, declined to offer specifics about talks for a long-term deal but did say, "I don't view the negotiations as being closed at this point."
Choo made his major league debut in 2005 with the Seattle Mariners but didn't become a regular until the second half of 2008, then with the Indians. (Yonhap News)
추신수 연봉 대박..1년 397만5천달러에 재계약
(서울=연합뉴스) 추신수(29.클리블랜드 인디언스)가 연봉 조정으 로 가지 않고 거액 몸값에 재계약했다.
미국 프로야구 메이저리그 공식 홈페이지인 MLB.com은 19일(한국시간) 추신수와 1년간 397만5천달러(한화 44억2천600만원)에 재계약했다고 전했다.
지난 시즌 메이저리그 연봉 하한선인 46만1천100달러를 받았던 추신수는 몸값이 9배가량 올랐다.
추신수는 지난 시즌 2년 연속 타율 3할을 때리면서 20홈런-20도루를 작성하는 등 최고의 활약을 펼쳤고 연봉 조정을 신청했으나 다음 달 2일부터 열릴 연봉 청문 회에 가기 전에 극적으로 재계약에 성공했다.
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