Twins chasing 2nd straight title as KBO eyes another attendance record

Fans watch a Korea Baseball Organization preseason game between the home team Samsung Lions and the LG Twins at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in the southeastern city of Daegu, Sunday. Yonhap

The LG Twins will try to do something this year that hasn't been done since 2016 in South Korean baseball — repeat as Korean Series champions.

And as one of the country's most popular teams chases a second consecutive title beginning Saturday afternoon, the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) will look to establish yet another attendance record.

The 45th KBO season will open with five games across the nation starting at 2 p.m. Saturday.

The Twins will begin their title defense against the KT Wiz at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul. The Hanwha Eagles, last year's runners-up, will face the Kiwoom Heroes at Daejeon Hanwha Life Ballpark in the central city of Daejeon.

Elsewhere, it will be the SSG Landers hosting the Kia Tigers at Incheon SSG Landers Field in Incheon, just west of Seoul; the Samsung Lions bringing the Lotte Giants to the southeastern city of Daegu; and the NC Dinos hosting the Doosan Bears in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province.

Baseball has truly become the national pastime in South Korea. Last year, the KBO drew a record 12,312,519 fans, easily surpassing the previous mark of 10,887,705 set in 2024. The league is expected to get an extra boost this spring from the national team's run to the quarterfinals at the World Baseball Classic in March.

Fans offered a glimpse of what's to come by packing stadiums during the preseason. On Saturday, the five games on schedule had a record total of 80,042 fans, and then the mark came down the very next day when 83,584 fans showed up at five stadiums nationwide. Three of those preseason games — the Twins at the Lions in Daegu, the Tigers at the Bears in Seoul and the Eagles at the Giants in Busan — had over 20,000 fans in attendance, a virtually unthinkable number just a few years ago.

The KBO said this year's preseason set a record with 440,247 fans, topping the previous high of 321,763 from a year ago.

The 2015-2016 Bears are the last team to win back-to-back Korean Series crowns. The Twins took a crack in 2024 but instead endured an early exit in the postseason that fall before going all the way again in 2025.

This year, they have lost their former captain and the 2025 Korean Series MVP Kim Hyun-soo to the Wiz in free agency but have retained most of their championship core. They are the only team to bring back all three foreign players from the end of the 2025 season, with pitchers Yonny Chirinos and Anders Tolhurst back for their second season and first baseman Austin Dean entering his fourth season.

Starting this year, KBO teams each received an additional roster spot for players from Asia or Australia. The Twins signed Australian pitcher Lachlan Wells, who had a brief KBO run last year with the Heroes as a temporary injury replacement. The bespectacled left-hander is expected to add depth to an already strong pitching staff.

The Lions were seen as the biggest potential threat to the Twins' throne after a busy offseason, but they have been dealt some major injury blows to their pitching already. Both starter Matt Manning and setup man Lee Ho-sung were ruled out for season during spring training due to elbow injuries. Another starting pitcher, Won Tae-in, also dealt with elbow issues in February, and he only resumed throwing March 8.

The Eagles reached the Korean Series last fall thanks in large part to their two dominant starters, Cody Ponce and Ryan Weiss, but both will be pitching in the majors this year. It will now be up to the two new imports, Wilkel Hernandez and Owen White, to pick up the slack on the mound.

LG Twins starter Lachlan Wells, left, high-fives his teammates during a Korea Baseball Organization preseason game against the Kiwoom Heroes at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul, Monday. Yonhap

The Wiz have been a perennial postseason threat and are expected to be in contention once again this year. They made wholesale changes to their foreign player corps, signing two new pitchers in Matt Sauer and Caleb Boushley and a new outfielder in Sam Hilliard.

Among those who missed the postseason last year, the Tigers, the Bears and the Giants will try to join the party in 2026.

The Tigers won the 2024 Korean Series title but fell all the way to eighth place in 2025, with injuries to key players, including the 2024 regular-season MVP Kim Do-yeong, holding them back. Kim is healthy once more and will be asked to carry the heavy load now that a couple of veterans from the 2024 championship squad, shortstop Park Chan-ho and designated hitter Choi Hyoung-woo, have left.

The Bears went through a managerial change last year, and instead of promoting interim boss Cho Sung-hwan, they hired their former pitching coach Kim Won-hyong as new skipper. Also, they have reacquired their former ace Chris Flexen, who went 8-4 with a 3.01 ERA in 2020 and helped the Bears reach the Korean Series in the fall.

The Giants finished first in the preseason for the 13th time overall, but throughout league history, preseason performances have had little bearing on teams' regular-season success. For instance, the Giants tied for first in the preseason in 2022, and they ended up in eighth place in the regular season that same year.

Some rule changes will take effect this year.

The pitch clock will be reduced by two seconds — 18 ticks with the bases empty and 23 seconds with runners on.

The KBO imposed a ban on infield shifts two years ago and added a new wrinkle this year. If a fielder in an illegal spot touches a ball in play, then the batting team can choose one of the following options: have the batter take first base, have a runner advance a base, or make the play on the field stand. The fielder in this case will be charged with an error.

Pitchers will be subject to mandatory checks for foreign substances on their hands — twice for starting pitchers and once for relievers during a game — and violators will face a 10-game ban.