Twins, Heroes and Korea to face Dodgers, Padres in exhibition games

The LG Twins and Kiwoom Heroes will get the chance to try their hands against some of the west coast's best in March, with Coupang Play announcing Tuesday that the two Seoul clubs and the Korean national team will face the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres in exhibition games on the sidelines of the Seoul Series that acts as the official opener to the 2024 MLB season.

The Dodgers and Padres are set to face off at Gocheok Sky Dome in western Seoul on March 20 and 21. The series is the first official MLB regular season match-up to be scheduled on Korean soil, kicking off the 2024 big league season.

Prior to that series, exhibition games will pit the Twins, Heroes and Korea against presumably either the Dodgers or Padres, although the schedule is yet to be announced.

The Padres are the current home of reigning MLB Gold Glove winner Kim Ha-seong and rookie pitcher Go Woo-suk, who could become the first Korean player ever to make his big league debut on Korean soil.

The Dodgers aren't currently home to any Korean players but have previously housed some of Korea’s biggest stars — including Park Chan-ho, Choi Hee-seop and Ryu Hyun-jin — and are currently home to perhaps the biggest Asian star of all time: Shohei Ohtani.

Ticket sales for the MLB World Tour Seoul Series 2024 will be available beginning Jan. 25 through the Coupang Play website. Details about the games will exclusively be available on the official website as well.

Only users with Coupang's Rocket Wow membership — a paid subscription service that allows a user to use Coupang Play — will be able to purchase tickets online.

The 2024 series marks the second attempt by the MLB to schedule games in Korea in recent years. In 2022, an exhibition series planned for November was canceled a few weeks before it was scheduled to be held due to "contractual issues with the event promoter."

BY JIM BULLEY AND PAIK JI-HWAN [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]