The MLB Seoul Series practice game between Team Korea and the San Diego (SD) Padres was held at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on the 17th. San Diego’s Go Woo-seok is waiting in the dugout.
The outlook for Go Woo-seok (26), who entered the Major League Baseball (MLB) early this year with big dreams, is bleak. Less than a month after changing teams, he was placed on the release waiting list, threatening to derail his big league challenge.
The Miami team announced on the 31st (Korean time), “We have designated Go Woo-seok as a DFA while recruiting pitcher Sean Anderson from the Texas Rangers.”
DFA is one of the procedures in MLB for changing or terminating a contract between a club and a player. It is like a kind of ultimatum in which the club urges the player to be demoted to the minor league or leave the team.
Players assigned for designation will be immediately removed from the 40-man roster and automatically placed on waivers. In fact, it is safe to say that Miami has been released, as it is equivalent to giving up the ownership rights and contract for Go Woo-seok.
Now Go Woo-seok is given a week of fate. If Go Woo-seok is recruited by another club within this period, he can continue his challenge to the MLB.
However, if there is no recruitment offer, he must leave Miami and look for another team directly, or remain in Miami as a minor affiliate.
If he remains in the minors, he can receive a remaining salary of $4.5 million from Miami until 2025, but if he chooses free agency, he cannot receive the remaining salary. The reason Go Woo-seok was ignored less than a month after settling in Miami was largely due to his failure to leave an impact. He gave up no runs in two games after moving to Miami, but was shaken by allowing 1 run in 1⅔ innings in his third appearance, and gave up 2 runs in 1 inning in his fifth appearance. He continued his scoreless streak in the last two games again, but was not an attractive player in the club’s eyes. In particular, the current Miami general manager is Peter Bendix (39), who is famous for achieving results with a limited budget during his time as general manager of the Tampa Bay Rays. General Manager Bendix is trying to reduce the cost of running the Miami team as much as possible, and it can also be seen that he took measures to allocate nominations to reduce even Go Woo-seok’s not-so-high annual salary. Looking at it objectively, it is not very likely that Go Woo-seok will be traded to another team. Since he didn’t step foot on the MLB stage once this season, he didn’t even have a chance to be noticed by scouts.
In particular, according to his current contract, Go Woo-seok has the right to veto the minor league starting in 2025, but other clubs may find this clause burdensome.
If there is no trade news for a week, Go Woo-seok must decide whether to remain in the minors or leave the team as a free agent. Some are saying that this may be a U-turn to LG. LG also has no reason not to welcome Go Woo-seok’s return.
However, given that he has only been in the United States for five months, the player’s pride may not allow him to admit failure and return to the country.
MLB commentator Song Jae-woo said, “It doesn’t seem likely that Go Woo-seok will return to Korea right now. “Even if Go Woo-seok, who is already mentally shaken, goes to LG, he may suffer from trauma for a while,” he said. “The most realistic response is to wait for a trade and if that doesn’t work, look into other teams through an agent.”
He continued, “The current contract provisions, such as salary scale and minor veto rights, may actually become factors that make the transfer difficult, so it is also possible to predict a plan to modify some of the contract conditions by remaining in the minors.” He added, “I think he will try to continue the challenge.”
He then advised, “The psychological blow felt by Go Woo-seok may be great, but it cannot be said that his big league dream has been completely dashed yet, so it is necessary to calmly monitor the situation and prepare for the next move.” 스포츠토토
