The first Korea Baseball Organisation (KBO) league players have been signed under a new “import players quota rule”, which was announced by KBO earlier this year.
Starting in 2026, the 10 KBO clubs can add one player from other Asian countries or Australia to their roster, in addition to three import players. That player must have competed in Asia or in Australia in the season immediately before the given year, and KBO teams may not spend more than $200,000 on the Asian/Australian quota player, including salary, signing bonus and buyout fees paid to the player’s former team.
The Hanwha Eagles and the KT Wiz became the first clubs to take advantage of the opportunity. The Wiz acquired Japanese pitcher Koki Sugimoto for US$120,000 while the Eagles signed Taiwanese pitcher Yan-Cheng Wang to a one-year deal worth US$100,000.
Sugimoto is a 25-year-old hard-throwing right-hander. He has played for the Tokushima Indigo Socks of the independent Shikoku Island League and appeared in 42 games out of the bullpen.
Wang, 23, is a left-handed pitcher. He has been under contract with NPB’s Rakuten Golden Eagles from 2020 to 2025, but never made it to the NPB team. The Golden Eagles signed him out of the Chinese Culture University. In 2025 he went 10-6 for the Golden Eagles minor league team.
KBO enjoyed a record 2025 campaign. The regular season had a record 12,312,519 paying spectators. The five Korean Series games sold out, attracting an average of 20,890 spectators per game, for a total of 104,450. The LG Twins defeated the Hanwha Eagles and claimed the pennant.
Cover photo: KT Wiz and Hanwha Eagles social media.
