The South Korean baseball league announced Wednesday it will bring back an auxiliary draft for unwanted minor leaguers or young prospects following the end of the 2023 season, hoping to provide them with regular playing opportunities.

After a board of directors meeting with the 10 club presidents, the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) decided to bring back its “secondary” draft, the South Korean equivalent of the Rule 5 draft in Major League Baseball (MLB).

The KBO first had the secondary draft from 2011 to 2019 but scrapped it in 2021.

In the secondary draft, KBO teams can select players not placed on their current clubs’ 35-man protected list by the season’s end. It is designed to prevent teams from hoarding young players in the minors when those prospects could be playing in the KBO for other clubs. Veterans in decline may also be left unprotected and become available in this draft.

The draft order will be determined by the standings at the end of the season, with the last-place team picking first. Teams will each make three selections first, and then the bottom three clubs from the standings will each receive two additional picks.

Teams will not be allowed to pick more than four players from one club.

Teams making selections must pay the players’ former team a transfer fee: 400 million won (US$310,110) for a first round pick, 300 million won for a second round pick and 200 million won for a third round selection.

The KBO will also require teams to keep their secondary draftees on the active roster for a designated number of days within two years of their selections: at least 50 days for first-round picks and 30 days for second-round picks. Those picked in the third round or later will be exempt from this requirement.

If teams don’t meet these requirements, then their secondary draft picks will either be returned to their previous teams or become free agents.

Source: Yonhap News Agency