The professional baseball KBO League began spring camp on February 1. Although it is still winter in February, it is given this name because training begins in an area with a warm climate and welcomes spring. The camp generally has a bright atmosphere. This is because of expectations for next season. Spring training is a period of optimism for baseball teams and fans. The basis for optimism is the various reinforcements made in the winter ‘Stove League’. The events that occurred in Stove League were organized by item. 

There are a total of 13 new foreign players who made their debut this year. Since each team can have three players, the replacement rate reaches 43.3%. The KBO league has a large proportion of foreign players. Last year, the proportion of foreign players in WAR (wins above replacement) in the 10 clubs averaged 22.6%. Given that Japanese Professional Baseball (NPB) is in the 8% range, KBO league clubs are very dependent on foreign players.

Among the 13 new foreign players, four are fielders. The player of most interest is Mel Rojas Jr., who returned to KT. After performing poorly at NPB Hanshin in 2021-2022, he played in the Mexican League last year. In 2020, he was named KBO League MVP with an OPS (on-base percentage + slugging percentage) of 1.097. Outfielders Jonathan Perlassa (Hanwha) and Victor Reyes (Lotte) are also important. Hanwha was the only team with a negative WAR for foreign fielders last year, with -0.87 wins. The league average was 2.67 wins. Outfielder Perlaza has no major league experience, but is a slugger who hit 23 home runs and had an OPS of 0.922 in Triple A last year. Lotte lost the center of its batting lineup after Lee Dae-ho retired. Last year, the WAR of all fielders was last among the 10 teams with 14.21 wins. Reyes boasts 394 career appearances in five major league seasons.

Foreign pitchers usually serve as starting aces and second starters in KBO League clubs. NC lost ace Eric Peddy in the offseason. Peddie made a spectacular return to the major leagues by signing a two-year, $15 million contract with the Chicago White Sox. NC has newly recruited Daniel Castano and Kyle Hart, but there is a big gap in 2023 league MVP Peddie. Samsung parted ways with David Buchanan, who won 54 games over four seasons. These two teams are the only ones to replace all three foreign players, including fielders. Among the two pitchers, there must be an ace. KIA was last in the league last year with a total WAR of foreign pitchers of 0.85 wins. There was also a large difference from 9th place SSG (4.95). This year, the two seats were filled with new faces including Will Crowe and James Nail. 

 total of 34 players qualified as free agents after the 2023 season. Of these, 19 people applied for qualification. The biggest one is shortstop Oh Ji-hwan, who signed a six-year contract with LG worth 12.4 billion won. It is also the largest free agency for shortstops in history. However, Oh Ji-hwan has already signed a contract for the same period (2024-2029) and the same amount as a non-FA after the 2022 season. This is a case where the affiliated team LG canceled and renewed the existing contract in order to increase the number of off-season protected players. This is because free agent players are not subject to protected player protection that applies to free agent contracts or the second draft. Although there is criticism that it is a 'trick', there are also evaluations that it shows creativity by making good use of the regulations.

After Oh Ji-hwan, Yang Seok-hwan (Doosan) with 7.8 billion won (4+2 years), Ahn Chi-hong (Hanwha) with 7.2 billion won (4+2 years), Kim Jae-yoon (Samsung) with 5.8 billion won (4 years), and Lim Chan-gyu (LG) with 50 billion won. He signed a large contract worth 100 million won (4 years). The market was not hot compared to previous years. The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) has allowed non-FA multi-year contracts starting in November 2021. Afterwards, Oh Ji-hwan, SSG Kim Gwang-hyun (4 years, 15.1 billion won), NC Koo Chang-mo (6 years, 12.5 billion won), Samsung Koo Ja-wook (5 years, 12 billion won), and Lotte Park Se-woong (5 years, 9 billion won) signed large contracts without free agent qualifications. Since it takes a long time to apply for free agency status, it is advantageous to sign a long-term contract when the player is younger.

Of the 19 free agent contracts, only three resulted in a change in team. Infielder Ahn Chi-hong transferred from Lotte to Hanwha. Last year, Ahn Chi-hong played 93 games as a second baseman and 34 games as a first baseman, recording a WAR of 2.75 wins. Hanwha, which ranked 9th in WAR (0.59 wins) at the second base position last year, strengthened its weaknesses with the addition of Ahn Chi-hong. Lotte, which was in 8th place (1.20 wins), on the other hand, urgently needed to strengthen this position. Samsung recruited KT closer Kim Jae-yoon (2.86 wins) and Kiwoom relief pitcher Lim Chang-min (1.89 wins) as free agents. Last year, Samsung was the only team in the league whose relief ERA exceeded 5 points. The addition of two relief pitchers also has the effect of easing the burden on franchise star Oh Seung-hwan, who turns 42 this year. Seung-Hwan Oh signed a two-year free agent contract this offseason. 

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