(Yonhap) Los Angeles Dodgers utility player Kim Hye-seong will join the Korean national team in training camp in Saipan ahead of the World Baseball Classic (WBC), sources said Tuesday.
The KBO confirmed that Kim will train alongside other domestic league stars on the western Pacific island from Friday to January 21.
Another U.S.-based player, pitcher Go Woo-suk, will also be in camp, the KBO said. Go recently signed a minor league deal with the Detroit Tigers as he tries to reach the MLB for the first time since moving to the United States two years ago.
The KBO initially named 29 players to the training camp roster on Dec. 3, 2025, all of them based in the Korean league. A few weeks later, then Kiwom Heroes third baseman Song Sung-mun signed with the San Diego Padres, and his availability for the camp and the WBC is now up in the air. Padres general manager A.J. Preller has said his club is “always very supportive” of players who want to represent their country at the WBC.
The WBC will run from March 5 to 17, with Korea scheduled to play all of its opening-round games in Tokyo against Japan, Australia, Taiwan and the Czech Republic.
After the Saipan camp, the national team will have another camp in Okinawa, Japan, in February.
Korea reached the semifinals at the inaugural WBC in 2006 and was the runner-up to Japan in 2009. However, it failed to make it out of the opening round in each of the next three editions in 2013, 2017 and 2023.
Because the WBC typically overlaps with MLB spring training games, big league clubs have been reluctant to release their players for the tournament. In some cases, players have pulled themselves out of consideration so that they could try to win a roster spot out of spring training or establish themselves on a new team.
It remains unclear if two other Korean big leaguers, Lee Jung-hoo of the San Francisco Giants and Kim Ha-seong of the Atlanta Braves, will participate in the WBC.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday after an offseason activity in Seoul with his manager Tony Vitello and teammate Willy Adames, Lee said he will soon have discussions with the team’s brass regarding his WBC availability.
“If I do get to play, I will probably train in the U.S. and then travel to Japan,” Lee added.
