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For Landers pitcher and holds leader Noh Kyung-eun, age is just a number

Published: 03 Dec. 2025, 15:51

Noh Kyung-eun of the SSG Landers poses with a trophy after being named Reliever of the Year at the Real Glove Awards ceremony at Grand Walkerhill Seoul hotel in Gwangjin District, eastern Seoul, on Dec. 1. [YONHAP]

Baseball rarely makes room for pitchers in their 40s. Noh Kyung-eun has forced it to.

At 41, the SSG Landers reliever has turned a career that once drifted from team to team into one of the KBO's defining late-bloomer stories. He won the league’s holds title last season at 40, then repeated this year — retaining the claim of the oldest player ever to do it.

Noh says he does not measure his career in deadlines. “I don’t think at all about when I might retire,” he said. “Until I feel my limits — until I think, ‘this is too hard’ — I want to keep challenging myself.”

His path here took long detours.

SSG Landers pitcher Noh Kyung-eun pitches during the 2025 KBO League postseason semifinal playoff against the Samsung Lions at SSG Landers Field in Incheon on Oct. 9. [YONHAP]

Noh debuted with the Doosan Bears in 2003. He then moved to the Lotte Giants in a 2016 trade. After the 2018 season, he reached free agency for the first time, but no team offered him a contract. He sat out the entire 2019 season before signing a two-year, 1.1 billion won ($750,000) deal with the Giants.

With his options narrowing, Noh asked the SSG Landers for a tryout. The club gave him a shot. He won a roster spot and signed for a guaranteed 100 million won a year. It became the third restart of his career — and the one that finally stuck.

In 2022, he bounced between the rotation and bullpen and went 12-5 with a 3.05 earned-run average. He took on more late-inning work the next year and reached 30 holds for the first time. This season, he collected 35 more and pushed his own record as the oldest holds champion to 41 years, eight months and 13 days.

He has now delivered three consecutive seasons with at least 30 holds, a first in KBO history. The Landers rewarded him before the season with a multiyear “2-plus-1” contract that guarantees two seasons and includes a mutual option for a third. The full package is valued at 2.5 billion won.

To Noh, the deal conveyed something more basic than money. It signaled belated trust.

“Honestly, I used to be used in low-leverage spots,” he said. “But filling a late-inning bullpen role for the Landers raised my confidence. I showed I still have strength and that my velocity in the high-140 kilometers per hour [high-80 miles per hour] is still there, and that’s how I got here.”

SSG Landers pitcher Noh Kyung-eun heads to the dugout during Game 2 of the 2025 KBO League postseason semifinal playoff against the Samsung Lions at SSG Landers Field in Incheon on Oct. 11. [YONHAP]

Noh’s resurgence has turned him into an example for other veterans. LG Twins pitcher Kim Jin-sung, 40, who became the oldest pitcher to earn a Korean Series win in Game 2, said afterward, “I’m following in Noh Kyung-eun's footsteps.”

Right-hander Lee Yong-chan, 36, who returned to the Bears last month, shared a similar sentiment. He said he wants to last as long as Noh and Kim.

Noh understands the responsibility that comes with being visible to younger pitchers. “I look around and feel more and more that I need to endure so younger players can have a path,” he said. “I hope other veteran players also think of the younger guys and do their best every day.”

Noh Kyung-eun of the SSG Landers, right, poses after being recognized for leading the KBO league in holds during the 2025 season, at the 2025 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO Awards ceremony at Lotte Hotel World in southern Seoul’s Songpa District on Nov. 24. [YONHAP]

Noh also made headlines at the KBO Awards last month when he delivered a message that struck a chord far beyond the field.

“There’s something I really want to tell all the players,” he said that night. “When I entered the pros, my father was 49. Now he’s over 70. Please visit your parents often and spend quality time with them.”

He later explained that the message came from experience. “I used to spend all my free time going out,” he said. “I didn’t think about seeing my parents because I said to myself that just managing my playing career was hard enough."

"Time doesn’t wait for us. I hope everyone avoids the regrets I had and visits their parents even one more time."

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY BAE YOUNG-EUN [[email protected]]