The NC Dinos inked free agent outfielder Son Ah-seop to a four-year contract Friday, flaunting their wealth in what has been a frenetic offseason in South Korean baseball. The Dinos said Son agreed to a 6.4 billion-won ($5.4 million) contract. The 33-year-old will make 3 billion won in total salary, 2.6 billion won in signing bonus and up to 800 million won in incentives. Son has spent his enti...

The South Korean baseball club Lotte Giants announced their signings of two new American pitchers on Friday. The Giants said former major leaguers Charlie Barnes and Glenn Sparkman will join their rotation on one-year deals. Barnes will make $610,000, with $460,000 in salary and $150,000 in signing bonus. Sparkman will earn a maximum $800,000, with $500,000 in salary and up to $300,000 in incent...

South Korean slugger Na Sung-bum grew up in the southern city of Gwangju, rooting for the Kia Tigers. He would frequent their home stadium with his parents, and as a teenage prospect, his middle school and high school teams even played a few games there too. And come 2022, Na will be playing for the Tigers. As a free agent, Na signed a six-year contract worth 15 billion won ($12.6 million) with ...

The NC Dinos filled their foreign player quota for the 2022 Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) season Tuesday, signing a new outfielder while retaining two starting pitchers. The Dinos announced they have acquired former major league outfielder Nick Martini on a one-year deal worth up to $800,000. Martini, who will replace Aaron Altherr in the lineup, will make $440,000 in salary, $110,000 in sig...

Ivan Nova, a former 16-game winner for the New York Yankees, is coming to South Korea. The SSG Landers of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) announced on Tuesday they signed Nova to a one-year deal at up to US$1 million, the maximum amount of money allowed for new foreign players. The 34-year-old right-hander will make $750,000 in guaranteed salary and $150,000 in signing bonus, and he can pi...

The South Korean baseball club Lotte Giants hired former major league backstop Gerald Laird as their new catching coach on Sunday. The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) team said Laird, 42, will be replacing Hank Conger, who recently joined the Minnesota Twins as first base and catching coach following two seasons with the Giants. Laird played 13 seasons in the majors for five franchises, inclu...

As a former stolen base king himself, new Kia Tigers manager Kim Jong-kook would like to see more thieveries from his players going forward. Kim, having been a coach with the Tigers for a decade before being named skipper on Sunday, knows as well as anyone that the Tigers aren't going to slug their way to prominence. But it could be a different story when it comes to stealing bags, Kim said. "O...

The Kia Tigers announced coach Kim Jong-kook will be the new manager of the South Korean baseball club Sunday. Kim signed a three-year contract for the post for a signing bonus of 300 million won ($253,000) and an annual salary of 250 million won. Kim is nicknamed the "Tigers' one club man," having played all of his 14 seasons with the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) team, starting in 1996. ...

Davidson junior may be just one promising NCAA player in the pack, but Koreans have high hopes

South Korean big league first baseman Choi Ji-man has signed a new one-year contract to stay with the Tampa Bay Rays. MLB.com reported that Choi agreed to a $3.2 million deal Tuesday (US time), avoiding salary arbitration for the second straight offseason. Choi, not yet eligible for free agency, earned $2.45 million in 2021 after winning his first arbitration case. Choi, 30, made his major lea...

Former MVPs and major league players are among 14 free agents in South Korean baseball this winter. The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) announced Thursday 14 out of 19 players eligible for free agency had decided to exercise their rights. Those 14 are free to sign deals starting Friday. The 2018 regular season MVP Kim Jae-hwan is entering the open market for the first time at age 33 after 14 ...

Having dug themselves into an early hole in the Korean Series, the Doosan Bears will now turn to their best starter from the regular season. The Bears have dropped the first two games of the best-of-seven set against the KT Wiz. They will have left-hander Ariel Miranda start Game 3 when the series resumes at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul. But it will be a much different versi...

Entering this year's Korean Series against the Doosan Bears, the KT Wiz only carried two players with prior experience in the South Korean baseball championship stage. One was 40-year-old designated hitter Yoo Han-joon, who'd played in one in 2014. The other was backup catcher Hur Do-hwan, who'd only been a part-time player in the 2014 and 2018 Korean Series. Compare that to the Bears, who are ...

Errors aren't always the most accurate measure of defense in baseball, but untimely miscues on the field can come bite a team when they least expect them. Just ask the Doosan Bears, whose defense failed them in an opening 4-2 loss to the KT Wiz in the Korean Series on Sunday. Three of the Wiz's runs were unearned, having been a direct result of fielding errors that preceded them. The Bears com...

If there's anything that KT Wiz skipper Lee Kang-chul learned last year managing in his first postseason, it's that he shouldn't mess with what got him there in the first place. The Wiz got knocked out of the penultimate round in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) postseason in 2020, losing to the Doosan Bears in four games. This year, the Wiz have taken an extra step, earning a bye to the Ko...