Kim Kwang-hyun, who cried at ABS for "one annual salary of up to 3 billion won in South Korea," revived this year in a spectacular way
Kim Kwang-hyun, who cried at ABS for "one annual salary of up to 3 billion won in South Korea," revived this year in a spectacular way
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The highest paid professional baseball player this year is SSG left-hander ace Kim Kwang-hyun (37). The 37-year-old pitcher received a whopping 3 billion won (39 million U.S. dollars), surpassing 2.5 billion won (2.33 million dollars) for Lee Dae-ho (former Lotte) in 2019 and Ryu Hyun-jin (Hanwha).메이저놀이터
Kim Kwang-hyun has paid a lot of money since his first appearance this year. Kim Kwang-hyun started the home game against Doosan in the "2025 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League" held at SSG Landers Field in Incheon on the 23rd and led the team to a 5-2 victory with two runs in five ⅔ innings.
SSG won the opening game 6-5. It started the season in a good mood by tying with Samsung and LG for first place by sweeping the opening series.
More than anything else, Kim garnered as many as eight strikeouts on the day. He handled almost half of his 17 out counts with strikeouts. He shares the No. 1 strikeout with LG's first starter Yoni Chirinos. Chirinos started the game with Lotte on Tuesday and allowed two runs in six innings. Kim is slightly ahead in strikeouts per inning.
In fact, Kim struggled with the automatic ball determination system (ABS), which was first introduced last year. He had 12 wins (10 losses) in 31 games, but his ERA reached a whopping 4.93. It far exceeds his ERA of 3.33, which is the worst figure since his debut in 2007.
Last year, he had 79 walks, hit-by-body balls, and 24 home runs, but he pitched six more innings in 2023, but the figures were lower at 72 and 11, respectively. Kim Kwang-hyun confessed last year, "I took ABS too seriously, and I think I was reversed while trying to use it."
Kim Kwang-hyun has thus displayed encouraging performances since the first game of this year. Analysts say that he is benefiting from the improved ABS. This year, the strike zone of the ABS has been lowered by 0.6 percentage point from last year. Based on the 180-centimeter batter, the strike zone has decreased by about 1 centimeter.
It is advantageous for pitchers who throw falling balls well. Kim is good at throwing sliders and curves, and ABS zone may be a welcoming event this year. Kim struck out five sliders, two fastballs and one curveball on the day. The catcher's mitts that catch a falling breaking ball can droop below the zone, but the ball is caught with a strike after hanging over the zone.
Son Ju-young, the same left-hander of LG, pitched a perfect pitch with five strikeouts and no run in seven innings on Sunday. Notably, his falling curve was especially powerful, but he is highly likely to benefit from the ABS zone, which has been lowered this season like Kim Kwang-hyun. Will pitchers who throw breaking balls that fall faster than sideways gain the upper hand.