SEOUL– Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman Choi Ji-man has been cut from the South Korean national team for next month’s World Baseball Classic (WBC) due to medical reasons, officials here said Monday.
The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) announced that the Pirates submitted a “medical objection” to the tournament organizers, based on Choi’s elbow surgery in November 2022. The objection was upheld in a ruling by the World Baseball Classic Inc. Disability Review Committee.
South Korean manager Lee Kang-chul named Choi to his team in January despite the player’s recent operation but left doors open for a last-minute change in case of the Pirates’ objection. WBC-bound teams are allowed to make changes on medical grounds before the Feb. 7 deadline.
Instead of selecting another first baseman in lieu of Choi, Lee picked SSG Landers outfielder Choi Ji-hoon to take Choi Ji-man’s spot.
Choi Ji-hoon, 25, enjoyed the best season of his three-year Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) career in 2022, batting .304/.362/.427 with career highs of 10 home runs and 31 steals. He is an elite defensive center fielder on a team with a couple of other strong defenders in the outfield.
“I never expected to make the team. This still hasn’t hit me yet,” Choi said in a statement released by the Landers hours after the KBO’s announcement. “It’s an honor to be selected for the national team. I’ve been working hard all offseason, and I will try to get ready in time for the tournament.”
Choi Ji-man’s absence leaves Park Byung-ho and Kang Baek-ho, a pair of KT Wiz teammates, as the two primary first basemen options. Park himself is coming off a serious ankle injury that limited him to designated hitting duties in the late portion of the 2022 KBO season, while Kang is a defensive liability at first.
Left fielder Kim Hyun-soo has some experience playing first base, though he didn’t play that position in 2022 after logging just 15 2/3 innings in 2021 and 34 innings the year before that.
South Korea’s first game is against Australia on March 9 at Tokyo Dome.
South Korea will also face Japan, China and the Czech Republic in Pool B. The top two teams after round-robin action will advance to the quarterfinals. All preliminary and quarterfinal games for Pool B nations will take place at Tokyo Dome.
Without Choi Ji-man, Kim Ha-seong of the San Diego Padres and Tommy Edman of the St. Louis Cardinals, an American-born star with a Korean mother, are the only two major leaguers on the South Korean roster.
Source: Yonhap News Agency