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...

Though he will be facing the same opponents that eliminated his team from the postseason last year, KT Wiz right-hander So Hyeong-jun won't be out to get his revenge. "All I am thinking about is winning our first championship," So told reporters Sunday before Game 1 of the Korean Series against the Doosan Bears at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul. "It just happened that we'll be playing the Bears again...

As he was watching his Doosan Bears teammates battle through postseason games this month, the competitor in the team's Cuban ace Ariel Miranda was itching to get going and join them on the field. Miranda missed time at the end of the regular season in late October and then the early portion of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) postseason this month with shoulder fatigue. But instead of leavi...

The KT Wiz will be playing in the South Korean baseball championship series for the first time starting Sunday, and their manager Lee Kang-chul believes it could be a short series in his club's favor against the Doosan Bears. At Saturday's media day press conference ahead of the Korean Series, Lee said his club may even pull off a four-game sweep in the best-of-seven series. "If we can grab the...

Doosan Bears' left-hander Ariel Miranda has been named South Korean baseball's top player for October, the month in which he also set an all-time strikeout record for a season. The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) announced Tuesday that the Cuban ace beat five other candidates for the Player of the Month honor for the final month of the regular season. Miranda earned 15 out of 32 votes from me...

Two old rivals in South Korean baseball will reacquaint themselves with each other in the penultimate stage of the postseason starting Tuesday. The Samsung Lions will host the Doosan Bears in Game 1 of the best-of-three second round at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in Daegu, some 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul. The second game will be at the Bears' home in Seoul, Jamsil Baseb...

At the 2017 rookie draft in South Korean baseball, Moon Sung-ju was selected 97th overall by the LG Twins, with only three players coming after him. Few would have given Moon any chance of even making it to the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), let alone thriving in the league. But here he is in November 2021, wielding a hot bat for the Twins in a postseason series against their Seoul rivals, D...

Managers of the two South Korean baseball clubs set up for a win-or-go-home postseason game Sunday said they will take an all-hands-on-deck approach to the final showdown. The LG Twins and the Doosan Bears are knotted at 1-1 in the best-of-three opening round in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) postseason. Game 3 is at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul, where LG manager Ryu Ji-hyun will have...

Before ex-major leaguer Choo Shin-soo signed with the SSG Landers this year and became an instant star in South Korean baseball, left-hander Kim Kwang-hyun had been the icon for the franchise once called the SK Wyverns. The lanky left-hander has spent the past two seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals, while Choo played in the Korea Baseball Organization for the first time in 2021. With Kim now ...

The South Korean baseball club Lotte Giants announced Saturday they've hired former New York Mets assistant pitching coach Ricky Meinhold as their director of pitching. The Korea Baseball Organization club said the arrival of the 35-year-old completes their staff on the pitching side for 2022. The Giants said Meinhold will oversee operations and development of their pitching staff at all levels...

From the topsy-turvy regular season to the bitter, early ending to the postseason, things have been all too familiar for the Kiwoom Heroes this year. The Heroes lost to the Doosan Bears 16-8 in the second wild card game Tuesday night to take an exit from the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) postseason. They also fell in the wild card stage last year. As the lower seed at No. 5, the Heroes had ...