In the V League, free agents come with costly strings attached

A wave of sign-and-trade deals in the women’s volleyball offseason is putting renewed scrutiny on the league’s free agency rules, which critics say are forcing clubs and players into inefficient, costly transactions.

While free agents in other sports are permitted to sign for any club with no strings attached, a move for a V League free agent incurs heavy compensation for the new club, based on the player's salary grade.

The art of the Korean volleyball league deal is complicated by a rule that requires released players to re-sign with their last club before joining a new one, adding procedural and financial layers to what might otherwise have been straightforward transfers.

The regulations require any team acquiring a player earning more than 100 million won a year ($67,700) — classified as a "Grade A" player — to compensate the player's club with either 200 percent of their previous salary plus a trade or 300 percent of the salary outright.

Pyo Seung-ju obtained free agent status while with the Jung Kwan Jang Red Sparks. She went unsigned and retired last year. In February, Red Sparks head coach Ko Hee-jin reached out to gauge her interest in a return, after which three-way negotiations were held with her and the Heungkuk Life Pink Spiders, the team she hoped to join.

Pyo re-signed with the Red Sparks and was traded to the Pink Spiders on Monday. As part of the deal, the Red Sparks received a first-round draft pick, with a second-round pick going the other way.

Three other deals in the women’s division were completed the same day, all following a similar sign-and-trade structure.

Pepper Savings Bank AI Peppers transferred Park Jeong-ah, the new captain of the Korean women's volleyball national team, to Korea Expressway Hi-Pass and hitter Lee Han-bi to Hyundai Engineering & Construction Hillstate in cash deals.

Hi-Pass sent middle blocker Bae Yoo-na to Hillstate and received setter Lee Su-yeon in return. 

The players who recently moved through this process were also all veterans in their 30s, receiving some of the highest salaries in the league. 

With their performances starting to decline, as is common with athletes over 30 in any sport, contract renewals are already difficult, and the transfer process is even more complicated, industry insiders say.

But since finding a solution that satisfies all parties is difficult, the clubs end up grudgingly absorbing losses, big and small, throughout negotiations.

Players, too, find themselves pushed out the door rather than choosing their destination freely.

Calls are growing to reform the free agent grading system that produces this kind of inefficiency. Most urgently, the grade thresholds — which have lost the ability to meaningfully differentiate players — need to be recalibrated.

Of the 14 female free agents last year, 13 were classified as Grade A. This year, 15 out of 20 received the same status.

The problem is that the 100 million won threshold set when the women's grading system was first introduced in 2018 has gone unchanged for eight years. 

The leaguewide salary cap, which stood at around 1.4 billion won at the time, has nearly doubled to 2.7 billion won today.

In professional baseball, on the other hand, players who become free agents for a third time or are aged 35 or older are automatically classified as Grade C regardless of salary, easing the transfer burden on veterans.

While free agency is intended to give players greater choice while allowing teams to strengthen their rosters, as it stands, it has instead become a burden for V League clubs, raising questions about whether the system is working as intended.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.

BY KIM HYO-KYOUNG [lee.jian@joongang.co.kr]