KBO rule revamp gives teams more options in the injury-stricken dog days of summer

Seven of 10 KBO teams were left without at least one foreign player for part of the 2023 season due to injury. Under new KBO rules, teams can now bring in a temporary replacement rather than having to choose between waiting it out or cutting ties.

LG Twins' Austin Dean, left, celebrates after hitting a double with Kiwoom Heroes shortstop Addison Russell to his right during a game at Gocheok Sky Dome in western Seoul in July 2023. [YONHAP]

In baseball, where games are spoken of in hours rather than minutes, speed comes in bursts.

There are often long breaks before a player's bat finally makes contact with the ball. Then it does, and the crowd roars as the hitter makes a mad dash to cover as many bases as he can before the ball gets back around and the other team tags him out.

But the fastest part of the sport is the speed of the ball. Average pitches in the KBO reach more than 150 kilometers per hour (90 miles per hour) — faster than a cheetah's maximum of 130 kilometers per hour and three times as fast as the express train from Gimpo Airport to Gangnam.

And the sport's repetitive nature, where the familiar pitch, hit, three strikes, you're out pattern repeats for nine innings over a single game, exposes players to muscle overuse and places particular strain on pitchers who repeat the same motion hundreds of times and emphatically more during practice.

That's exacerbated among the KBO's foreign player pool, typically in which every two in three is a pitcher and generally a starter at that.

Former NC Dinos starter Erick Fedde pitches during Game 1 of the second round of KBO playoffs at KT Wiz Park in Suwon, Gyeonggi on Oct. 30, 2023. [YONHAP]

But with strict restrictions on the number of foreign players allowed on a team’s lineup, injuries often become liabilities. Long breaks can hinder a team’s investment in foreign players, who are paid hundreds of thousands more than many of their teammates.

Last fall, with weeks of the postseason still to go, the KBO announced it would introduce an “alternative foreign player recruitment system” for teams to more easily replace injured foreign players beginning with the 2024 season.

According to the new rule, an injured foreign player with an expected recovery time of more than six weeks can register as an “alternative foreign player,” remaining on the roster while a new recruit temporarily takes his place.

Alternative foreign players will be eligible to earn up to $100,000 per month, the KBO said.

After six weeks, the injured player can retake his spot on the roster, sending his replacement home. Or, teams can choose to keep the new guy on their roster — giving one of their original three foreign players the boot, which would use up one of the season’s allotted roster changes.

It’s essentially a loophole to existing rules. Teams are allowed a maximum of three foreign players on their lineup, and they can only change players — release one and acquire another — twice per season.

The KBO said the system would address the “power imbalance” created by a foreign player’s long-term injury without counting it as one of the team’s allotted replacements that could otherwise be used toward bringing in a different player for one with a lackluster season.

It’s a rule almost certain to affect the majority of KBO teams after the season kicks off in March. Foreign player lineups at the end of a KBO season rarely look like what teams start with during spring training.

In 2023, six teams released at least one of their foreign players due to injury, according to an analysis by the Korea JoongAng Daily.

Two teams didn’t even make it to opening day. The SSG Landers lost pitcher Enny Romero when a shoulder injury took him out during spring training and went a month before replacing him in May with Roenias Elias, who finished out the season for $540,000.

And the Doosan Bears began the 2023 season without pitcher Dylan File, who was taken out for a month after being struck in the head during practice in February. He was later released in June after making just two starts, replaced by Brandon Waddell on a $280,000 deal.

The Kiwoom Heroes, who ended last season at the bottom of the 10-team table, took the biggest hit, using both of their allotted replacements after back-to-back injuries.

The Seoul club released ace Eric Jokisch mid-way through the 2023 season, in June, shortly after he was diagnosed with a tear in his leg, expected to take him out for more than six weeks.

But it took another month for the Heroes to release shortstop Addison Russell, in July, after he was taken out by a wrist injury in June.

The LG Twins left an empty spot on their roster throughout the post after starter Adam Plutko returned to the U.S. with an injured hip.

In more extreme cases, the Kia Tigers in the summer of 2022 were left without any foreign players active on their lineup. Two were out with injury — Sean Nolin with a calf injury and outfielder Socrates Brito with a broken nose — while the replacement for waived pitcher Ronnie Williams had yet to arrive in Korea.

All but three teams during the 2022 season were at one point down an active foreign player due to injury, according to an analysis by the Korea JoongAng Daily.

Rosters hardly ever go totally unscathed, however, with teams shaking up their lineups after players fail to deliver. All 10 teams in the KBO last year made some change, wanted or unwanted, to their lineups last season.

And it remains to be seen whether the midseason replacement system will be effective, with replacement players guaranteed just six weeks before possibly having to leave the club once the injured player returns.

The 2024 KBO season opens on March 23.

BY MARY YANG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]