The Lotte Giants threw a ‘carrot’. Starting this year, we introduced a performance option system that allows you to receive a higher salary if you meet the target grades rather than a fixed salary. It is a system similar to the annual salary system introduced by the Samsung Lions earlier.
It is a method of stimulating the players’ motivation with incentives based on performance, but this year, Han Dong-hee and Lee Hak-joo started competing with themselves.
Han Dong-hee signed for 192.6 million won, up 12% from 172 million won last year, or 20.6 million won. If the performance option is achieved here, the annual salary rises to 266.8 million won. This means that it took 74.2 million won to achieve the goal.
Together with Han Dong-hee, Lee Hak-joo challenges the performance option. Lee Hak-joo, who was considered the right person to solve Lotte’s shortstop problems, but finished the season in vain due to frequent injuries and poor grades, is set to make a comeback by fighting himself.
Lee Hak-joo received an annual salary of 70 million won last year, and this year he is guaranteed an annual salary of 72 million won, up 2.9%. According to Lotte, Lee Hak-joo’s annual salary rises to 96 million won if he achieves all performance options. That’s a difference of 24 million won. 안전놀이터
Even when he returned to Korea after arranging his American life, Lee Hak-joo’s future looked bright. In 118 games in his first season at Samsung, he only had a batting average of 0.262, but his salary rose sharply to 90 million won. The Samsung club set the record for the highest annual salary in the second year of history. Compared to his performance, the increase was huge, and it can be said that the fact that he was a “return group” who joined without a down payment had an impact.
The noticeable salary increase ended at this time. Lee Hak-joo’s annual salary stayed at 70 million won in both 2021 and 2020. There was no reason to ask for a raise. Except for his debut season, he never played more than 100 games. Even so, he posted double-digit errors in three of his four seasons. His career batting average stayed at 0.233, and the last two years were 0.206 and 0.207, respectively, at the level of the ‘Mendoza line’.
This year is a crisis from the position. It is unclear whether he will even be able to earn a place in the first team. Ahead of this season, Lotte recruited Noh Jin-hyeok, a free agent infielder who can defend shortstop and third baseman. While a core prospect named Han Dong-hee held out at third base, a free agent entered the shortstop. It was obviously an unfavorable situation for Lee Hak-joo, but Lee Hak-joo was determined to rebound with the performance option.