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MLB To Open 2024 Season With Dodgers-Padres Series In South Korea

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Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association announced the “World Tour” schedule for the 2024 season. The ’24 campaign will kick off with a two-game series between the Padres and Dodgers in Seoul on March 20-21.

Those will be the first MLB regular season contests ever played in South Korea. The league had been slated to play four exhibition games in the nation — two in Seoul, two in Busan — over the 2022-23 offseason. That event was canceled, which MLB attributed to a contractual issue with a local promoter.

While the season-opening Korean set is the most notable development, the World Tour will also again take clubs to Mexico and the United Kingdom. The Rockies and Astros are slated for a two-game set in Mexico City on April 27-28. The Padres and Giants played there this April. MLB had previously announced a two-game set between the Mets and Phillies in London on June 8-9. The Cubs and Cardinals met in England last month.

Along with the three regular season series, MLB is sending the Rays and Red Sox to Santo Domingo for a pair of Spring Training games. The Dominican Republic exhibition contests will take place on March 9-10.

MLB and the MLBPA formed the World Tour program during the most recent round of collective bargaining. The league will schedule up to 24 regular season games and 16 Spring Training contests scattered throughout Latin America, Asia and Europe over the course of the CBA.

MLB Cancels 2022 Korea Series

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Major League Baseball is canceling the 2022 Korea Series that had been scheduled for next month, reports Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News (Twitter link). The league cited a contractual issue with a local promoter as the reason for the cancelation, Yoo notes.

In late August, MLB and the Players Association announced the creation of the Korea Series. The event would’ve pitted some major league players against players from the Korea Baseball Organization in a four-game exhibition, with two contests scheduled apiece in Busan and Seoul. Earlier this week, Michael Clair of MLB.com listed a number of players who’d been set to participate — including Randy Arozarena, Steven Kwan, Salvador Perez, former KBO slugger Darin Ruf and South Korea natives Ha-Seong Kim, Ji-Man Choi and Hoy Park.

MLB noted at the time of its announcement that it would be the first time players from MLB traveled to play games in Korea since 1922. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and KBO commissioner Koo-youn Heo have also previously discussed the possibility of playing some KBO games in the United States and MLB games in South Korea down the line.

There’s no indication the cancelation of the upcoming event has any bearing on longer-term plans, although it’ll still come as a notable disappointment to a number of fans inside South Korea. The event was set to kick off in just over two weeks time, with the first game scheduled for November 11.

The Korea Series had been part of a broader “World Tour” arrangement. Established as part of the most recent collective bargaining agreement, the program is set to play as many 24 regular season contests and 16 exhibition games throughout Latin America, Asia and Europe between 2022-26.

MLB, MLBPA Announce November “Korea Series” As Part Of MLB World Tour

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Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association announced Friday morning that Major League players will travel to South Korea in November for a four-game exhibition series involving players from the Korea Baseball Organization. The “2022 Korea Series” will run from November 9-16 and feature two-game sets at Busan’s Sajik Baseball Stadium (home to the KBO’s Lotte Giants) and at Seoul’s Gocheok Sky Dome (home to the KBO’s Kiwoom Heroes). The four-game series is both a part of MLB’s new “MLB World Tour” initiative to expand the game’s global presence and a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the KBO.

“Major League Baseball is excited to travel to Busan and Seoul for this historic series,” said MLB chief operations & strategy offer Chris Marinak in a statement within this morning’s press release. “This tour is the next step of MLB’s plan to deliver regular baseball events in Korea in the coming years and follows our upcoming Home Run Derby X, scheduled for September 17th in Seoul. South Korea’s rich baseball tradition has produced many accomplished Major League players, including All-Stars Chan Ho Park and Shin-Soo Choo, as well as current Blue Jays pitcher Hyun Jin Ryu and Rays first baseman Ji-Man Choi.  We thank J-One and the KBO for partnering with us and the MLBPA on this great event.”

As MLB’s release further indicates, this will be the first time Major League players have traveled to play games in South Korea in a century, when a group including Casey Stengel, Waite Hoyt and Herb Pennock, among others, made the trip back in 1922.

Under the MLB World Tour, MLB and the MLBPA have agreed to host as many as 24 regular season games and 16 exhibition contests between Asia, Europe, Latin America and Mexico through 2026. The KBO’s news release (hat tip: Jee-ho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency) indicates that KBO commissioner Koo-youn Heo and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred also discussed back in June the eventual possibility of regular-season KBO games being played in the United States and of regular-season MLB games being played in South Korea.

MLB and the MLBPA have yet to announce a slate of participants who’ll travel to South Korea for the event. The KBO release indicates that further details regarding schedule, matchups, ticket sales and participants on both the MLB and KBO side of the event will be announced at a September press conference.

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