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KBO to offer extra bonus for WBC, raise minimum salary

Published: 29 Jan. 2026, 12:23 Updated: 29 Jan. 2026, 17:36

Members of the Korean national baseball team pose for a group photo at Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, in this Nov. 14, 2025, file photo. [YONHAP]

The Korean baseball league announced Thursday it will offer extra cash bonuses for the national team for this year's World Baseball Classic (WBC).

The KBO will also raise the minimum salary for the first time in five years.

The KBO announced these and other rule changes following the year's first executive committee meeting on Jan. 20 and its first board of directors meeting Tuesday.

The national team will be awarded 400 million won ($280,250) in bonus for reaching the quarterfinals of the WBC. Previously, the KBO did not hand out any bonus for a quarterfinal appearance, but decided to offer one this time to further motivate the team.

Korea failed to advance out of the preliminary round at each of the past three WBCs — 2013, 2017 and 2023.

The KBO also decided to raise the amounts of other bonus payouts for WBC achievements. A trip to the semifinals will be worth 600 million won, double the previous amount. If Korea finishes in second place, the national team will be paid 800 million won, up from the 700 million won previously. A championship will net the team 1.2 billion won, compared to 1 billion won in the past.

The minimum salary will go up from 30 million won to 33 million won starting in 2027 — the first raise since it went from 27 million won to 30 million won in 2021.

An on-field rule change involves the practice of running through second base on a force play.

If there are runners at first and third with two outs and a ball is hit on the ground, the runner going to second may strategically decide to run straight through the bag instead of sliding, hoping that he'd beat the throw. And once that runner overruns the bag, he is likely to get caught in a rundown, which would then allow the runner from third to score on the play before the third out is recorded.

The KBO described this gambit as "a play that violates the essence of baserunning." Beginning in the new season, KBO umpires will have the power to call the runner going through the bag out for abandoning second base, even if he beats the throw. The runner will be considered to have abandoned the bag as soon as both feet land on the other side of the base.

In another decision, the KBO will give first base and second base umpires wireless devices in order to speed up video reviews and to allow umpires to better explain the ruling.

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

Currently, high school players who sign their first professional contracts overseas must wait two years to sign with a KBO club if they want to return home. The KBO expanded that category to cover middle school players as well. This would discourage middle schoolers from attending high school in another country and joining a pro club there, in which case they'd be able to sign with a KBO club later without the two-year waiting period.

Yonhap