NEW YORK (AP) — South Korean All-Star second baseman Hyeseong Kim and the Los Angeles Dodgers agreed Friday to a $12.5 million, three-year contract, the latest addition by the World Series champions in their offseason spending spree.
Kim gets a $1 million signing bonus and salaries of $2.5 million this year and $3.75 million in each of the following two seasons. The Dodgers have $5 million options for 2028 and 2029 that could raise the value to $22 million over five seasons. The options must be exercised together and the team would pay a $1.5 million buyout if they are declined.
He also can earn a $500,000 performance bonus for 500 plate appearances in both 2028 and 2029.
Kim's 30-day posting window to reach an agreement extended to 5 p.m. EST.
Kim, who turns 26 on Jan. 27, has played eight seasons in South Korea, the last six with the Seoul-based Kiwoom Heroes. He set career highs with a .326 average, 11 homers and 75 RBIs while stealing 30 bases.
Kim has a .304 career average with 37 homers, 386 RBIs and 211 steals for the Nexen Heroes (2017-18) and Kiwoom.
Los Angeles will pay his South Korean club a $2 million posting fee, calculated as 20% of guaranteed money. A supplemental fee would equal 15% of any earned bonuses, escalators and compensation from option years that are exercised or become guaranteed.
Coming off its second World Series title in five years, the Dodgers signed left-hander Blake Snell to a $182 million, five-year contract, kept infielder/outfielder Tommy Edman for $74 million over five seasons, reached a $17 million, one-year deal with outfielder Michael Conforto, retained right-hander Blake Treinen with a $22 million, two-year agreement and a $66 million, three-year contract with outfielder Teoscar Hernández.
Catcher Diego Cartaya was designated for assignment to open a roster spot.
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FILE - South Korea's Hyeseong Kim beats a tag by United States' Triston Casas in a pickoff-attempt at first base during the fifth inning of a baseball game at the 2020 Summer Olympics, July 31, 2021, in Yokohama, Japan. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)
Thirty-two dolphins have died since fuel oil spilled out of two storm-stricken tankers three weeks ago in the Kerch Strait, which separates the Russia-occupied Crimean Peninsula from Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, an animal rescue group said Sunday.
Russia’s Delfa Dolphin Rescue and Research Center said the deaths are “most likely related to the fuel oil spill.”
The center said on the messaging app Telegram that a total of 61 dead cetaceans — an order of aquatic mammals that includes whales and dolphins — had been recorded since the emergency, but the condition of the bodies suggested that the 29 others had died before the spill.
“Judging by the condition of the bodies, most likely the majority of these cetaceans died in the first 10 days after the disaster. And now the sea continues to wash them up,” the center wrote, noting that most of the dead dolphins were from the endangered Azov species.
Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said Sunday that over 96,000 tons of contaminated sand and soil had been removed by officials and volunteers along the shoreline of the Krasnodar region’s Anapa and Temryuk districts.
Russia-appointed officials in Moscow-occupied Crimea announced a regional emergency on Saturday after oil was detected on the shores of Sevastopol, the peninsula’s largest city some 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the Kerch Strait.
On Dec. 23, the ministry estimated that up to 200,000 tons in total may have been contaminated with mazut, a heavy, low-quality oil product.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the oil spill an “ecological disaster.”
The Kerch Strait is an important global shipping route, providing passage from the inland Sea of Azov to the Black Sea.
It has also been a key point of conflict between Russia and Ukraine after Moscow annexed the peninsula in 2014. In 2016, Ukraine took Moscow to the Permanent Court of Arbitration, where it accused Russia of trying to seize control of the area illegally. In 2021, Russia closed the strait for several months.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, described the oil spill last month as a “large-scale environmental disaster” and called for additional sanctions on Russian tankers.
In this photo taken from video released by Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025, rescuers work to clean up tons of fuel oil that spilled out of two storm-stricken tankers more than two weeks ago in the Kerch Strait, in Russia's southern Krasnodar region. (Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service via AP)
In this photo taken from video released by Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025, rescuers and volunteers work to clean up tons of fuel oil that spilled out of two storm-stricken tankers more than two weeks ago in the Kerch Strait, in Russia's southern Krasnodar region. (Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service via AP)
In this photo taken from video released by Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025, rescuers work to clean up tons of fuel oil that spilled out of two storm-stricken tankers more than two weeks ago in the Kerch Strait, in Russia's southern Krasnodar region. (Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service via AP)
