High schooler of the national football team aspires to play in MLB

Pitcher Jang Hyeon-seok (age 19), the first high school player to be selected for the Asian Games national baseball team of Korea, opted to try out for the American Professional Baseball Major League (MLB) over Korean professional baseball.

“After much thought, Jang chose not to apply for the national professional baseball drafting and try out for the MLB,” said Jang’s sports management agency Leecosports on Tuesday. “It was a tough decision as playing in the national professional baseball league and MLB were both of my dreams,” said Jang through his agency. "I decided to challenge myself aiming for the world’s no. 1 baseball stage." Thus, he will not participate in the 2024 KBO drafting held on Sept 15 and will negotiate with MLB teams that have expressed interest in him.

Jang, a right-handed pitcher, is 190 centimeters tall, weighs 90 kilograms, and was rated as the best player in this year’s draft by throwing fastballs with 150km/h speed and breaking balls. He pitched in seven high school baseball games this year and pitched 27 1/3 innings, posting a leading record of three wins, no losses, and an ERA of 0.33. He struck out 49 batters, far more than innings pitched.

He is the only amateur player to join the national baseball team in the Hangzhou Asian Games entry (24 members), which opens in September this year. The national team will be exempt from military service if he wins a gold medal in the games.


Heon-Jae Lee uni@donga.com