According to MHN Sports reports on the 20th, Ryu Hyun-jin will hold a contract ceremony at the Rivera Hotel in Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul at 9 a.m. on the 21st. 안전놀이터
According to a baseball official, “It is true that Hanwha has reached a contract agreement with Ryu Hyun-jin,” and “The reason why we started making uniforms in a hurry is because of the contract ceremony and joining the camp.”
Earlier on Tuesday afternoon, the Hanwha Eagles asked the MLB Secretariat through the KBO to check Ryu's status. Identification is a basic procedure for recruiting players who are active in overseas leagues. According to the Korea-U.S. player contract agreement, if a KBO league team wants to sign a player who has been active or active as a professional or amateur player in the U.S. or Canada, or a player who is currently under contract with 30 big league teams or is on a pending list, it must go through the KBO Secretariat and check his or her status with the MLB Secretariat.
Afterwards, the MLB Secretariat will deliver the result to the KBO Secretariat when it receives a request for status check. Hanwha will hold a contract ceremony immediately after the relevant status check process ends.
However, it is not an official joining ceremony. “We cannot proceed with the joining ceremony because we have to join the Okinawa camp immediately,” a Hanwha team source said. “Since we haven't officially announced our contract yet, we can't hold a press conference either,” adding, “Even if we sign a final contract, we won't be able to join the team immediately without joining the team.”
In addition, as a result of additional reporting by this newspaper, it was confirmed that the hotel currently has only one platform and four seats for the contract ceremony. The lack of preparation suggests that only the contract ceremony is held, not the preparation and joining ceremony for the press conference.
Ryu Hyun-jin entered the Major League ahead of 2013 after recording a career record of 98-52 and a 2.80 ERA in the KBO League. Over the next 11 years, he has gone through the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays with a record of 78 wins, 48 losses and one save with a 3.27 ERA in 185 games.
As is well known, Ryu's contract is worth 17 billion won for four years. This exceeds the record of 15.2 billion won for four plus two years that catcher Yang Eui-ji signed with Doosan last year and 15.1 billion won for SSG Landers pitcher Kim Kwang-hyun.
Meanwhile, Ryu will move to Incheon International Airport after the signing ceremony and join the team immediately. Hanwha will return to Korea on Monday morning after finishing its first spring camp in Melbourne, Australia. The team will move to Okinawa, Japan, and start its second camp immediately.
