Doosan Bears sign former star Yang Eui-ji on record 4+2 deal

Yang Eui-ji poses while signing a new contract with the Doosan Bears in a photo released by the club on Tuesday. [DOOSAN BEARS]

The Doosan Bears on Tuesday signed free agent catcher Yang Eui-ji on a four-plus-two deal worth up to 15.2 billion won ($11.2 million).

Yang, who played the last four years with the NC Dinos, will earn 6.6 billion won in salary for the first four years with a 4.4 billion won signing bonus. At the end of the 2026 season, the Bears retail the option to extend Yang's contract for another two years for up to 4.2 billion won.

Yang is on his second free agent deal. His four-year contract with the Dinos at the end of 2018 was worth 12.5 billion won, which at the time was the second-largest free agent contract in KBO history. Yang's total potential contract value at 15.2 billion won is the highest contract ever signed in the KBO, beating Kim Kwang-hyun's non-free-agent deal worth 15.1 billion won signed earlier this year.

Adding these two free agent deals together, Yang has earned himself a potential total of 27.7 billion won in the KBO free agent market over the years, far outpacing Kim Hyun-soo's combined record of 23 billion won to become the all-time highest paid free agent in Korean baseball history.

Yang, widely considered the best offensive catcher the KBO has ever seen, started his career with the Bears in 2007, playing 10 seasons with the club with a two-year break for military service before leaving at the end of the 2018 season to join the Dinos.

After winning the Korean Series title multiple times with the Bears, he captained the Dinos to take their first title in 2020, earning the Korean Series MVP title along the way for the second time in his career, after 2016.

A prolific slugger, Yang has a career .307 batting average with 1,546 hits, 944 RBIs and 228 home runs. He batted over .300 for four seasons straight from 2018 to 2021 and has hit 20 or more home runs each season for the last five years.

Yang is the first external free agent to sign with the Doosan Bears since 2014.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]