CPBL Foreign Players Updates Volume #215
Wei Chuan Dragons News: Jake Brigham
There seem to be some complications with the Wei Chuan Dragons re-signing Jake Brigham for the 2022 CPBL season.
On January 5, the Dragons announced they had agreed to terms with Jake Brigham, just waiting for him to “sort out some loose ends” with the Kiwoom Heroes of the KBO.
A few days later, on January 11, UDN revealed the detail of these so-called “loose ends”. As it turns out, it has something to do with the CPBL-KBO Player Contract Agreement.
In article three of the CPBL-KBO agreement, the Wei Chuan Dragons (CPBL) would need consent from the Kiwoom Heroes (KBO) to sign Jake Brigham for the 2022 season.
Based on multiple reports from the media, the Kiwoom Heroes still technically hold the contract for Jake Brigham as he failed to fulfil his 2021 KBO contract due to family reasons. The Heroes placed Brigham on the voluntarily retired list back in September 2021.
According to UDN, the CPBL has reached out to KBO regarding this matter, but ultimately, the contract problem is between Jake Brigham and the Heroes. Once the issue has been resolved, the team can inform the KBO to give the CPBL the greenlight to sign Brigham.
At this stage, there is no news about how both Jake Brigham and Kiwoom Heroes will sort out this contract issue. Maybe monetary compensation to the team in exchange for the release? Or perhaps the team will just let him go out of the good of their heart?
Update #1 – Brigham Needs to Pay Heroes
On January 13, the SPOTV News reported that Jake Brigham and the Kiwoom Heroes had reached an agreement regarding the contract dispute.
Jake Brigham will need to pay back two months of his 2021 KBO salary in exchange for the Kiwoom Heroes to release his contract. After the payment, he can freely sign with the Wei Chuan Dragons and play in the CPBL.
The Wei Chuan Dragons general manager told ETtoday that the team had no intention to pay for Jake Brigham’s release from the KBO, as it is a contract dispute between Brigham and the Heroes organisation.
“This is not a transfer fee between the CPBL and KBO teams,” said the Dragons general manager. “Jake Brigham and his agent will need to sort out this problem themselves.”
Update #2 – Contract Dispute Resolved
On January 17, the Wei Chuan Dragons’ general manager informed the media that the contract dispute between Jake Brigham and the Kiwoom Heroes had been resolved. The Dragons will now able to complete the signing of Jake Brigham for the 2022 CPBL season.
Further Readings
Foreign players come and goes, therefore we compiled a foreign players tracker to keep track of all the foreign players signing for the 2022 CPBL season.
Interesting situation, but since the Heroes have already signed their two foreign starting pitchers for 2022, the Heroes ought to just let Brigham sign with the Dragons. It is no secret that going into his age 34 season, the Heroes would probably have gone with a younger, cheaper foreigner anyway.
One thing that would make sense for the Heroes, however, would be an agreement where, at the CPBL split season break, the Heroes can sign Brigham if one of their signed foreign pitchers is struggling.
The Heroes have to be careful, though. If word gets around that the Heroes are sticking it to Brigham, it’s going to be harder for them to sign foreign players in the future, particularly since the Heroes are already penny-pinchers in a league that is attracting less skilled foreign players because of lower salaries for new foreigners across the board. The situation in 2021 was exceptional because of covid, and the Heroes almost certainly got their money’s worth out of Brigham, given his ten strong starts and likely leaving unpaid salary behind to return home.
I’m sure both parties can sort out the problem with money. I guess how much is the question here.
Or the Heroes could charge Brigham the classic baseball token payment — a bag of baseballs.