KBO to offer extra bonus for WBC, raise minimum salary

Members of the Korean nationwide baseball group pose for a gaggle picture at Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Nov. 14, 2025 (native time). Yonhap

The Korea baseball league introduced Thursday it is going to provide further money bonuses for the nationwide group for this yr’s World Baseball Basic (WBC).

The Korea Baseball Group (KBO) may even elevate the minimal wage for the primary time in 5 years.

The KBO introduced these and different rule modifications following the yr’s first government committee assembly Jan. 20 and its first board of administrators assembly Tuesday.

The nationwide group might be awarded 400 million gained ($280,250) in bonus for reaching the quarterfinals of the WBC. Beforehand, the KBO didn’t hand out any bonus for a quarterfinal look however determined to supply one this time to additional encourage the group.

Korea didn’t advance out of the preliminary spherical at every of the previous three WBCs — 2013, 2017 and 2023.

The KBO additionally determined to boost the quantities of different bonus payouts for WBC achievements. A visit to the semifinals might be price 600 million gained, double the earlier quantity. If Korea finishes in second place, the nationwide group might be paid 800 million gained, up from the 700 million gained beforehand. A championship will web the group 1.2 billion gained, in comparison with 1 billion gained prior to now.

The minimal wage will go up from 30 million gained to 33 million gained beginning in 2027 — the primary elevate because it went from 27 million gained to 30 million gained in 2021.

An on-field rule change includes the observe of operating by means of second base on a pressure play.

If there are runners at first and third with two outs and a ball is hit on the bottom, the runner going to second could strategically determine to run straight by means of the bag as an alternative of sliding, hoping that he’d beat the throw. And as soon as that runner overruns the bag, he’s prone to get caught in a rundown, which might then enable the runner from third to attain on the play earlier than the third out is recorded.

The KBO described this gambit as “a play that violates the essence of baserunning.” Starting within the new season, KBO umpires can have the ability to name the runner going by means of the bag out for abandoning second base, even when he beats the throw. The runner might be thought of to have deserted the bag as quickly as each toes land on the opposite facet of the bottom.

In one other choice, the KBO will give first base and second base umpires wi-fi units to be able to pace up video opinions and to permit umpires to higher clarify the ruling.

The KBO added a tweak to a rule designed to discourage a mass exodus of younger prospects.

Presently, highschool gamers who signal their first skilled contracts abroad should wait two years to signal with a KBO membership in the event that they need to return residence. The KBO expanded that class to cowl center faculty gamers as properly. This could discourage center schoolers from attending highschool in a foreign country and becoming a member of a professional membership there, wherein case they’d be capable of signal with a KBO membership later with out the two-year ready interval.