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Former major leaguer Choi Ji-man to join Ulsan Whales in Futures League

Published: 23 Apr. 2026, 14:14

Choi Ji-man interviews with Korean reporters at the Incheon International Airport in 2023 [NEWS1]

Former major leaguer Choi Ji-man is headed to the Ulsan Whales, a Futures League baseball team with public ownership.

Choi, who is currently undergoing knee rehabilitation and individual training, is expected to officially announce his move next week and join the team in July, according to sources in the sport on Thursday.

The move will give him a place to continue his comeback in Korea while he waits out the KBO’s two-year restriction on players returning from overseas. Ulsan, a publicly backed club founded this year, is playing in the second tier of the KBO.

Born in 1991, Choi graduated from Dongsan High School in Incheon and moved to the United States. He made his MLB debut with the Los Angeles Angels in 2016 and later played for the New York Yankees, Milwaukee Brewers, Tampa Bay Rays, Pittsburgh Pirates and San Diego Padres.

He appeared in 525 major league games, the second-most by a Korean position player, and posted a .234 batting average with 367 hits in 1,567 at-bats, 67 home runs, 238 RBIs, 190 runs scored and a .764 OPS. His 67 home runs rank second among Korean major leaguers, behind Choo Shin-soo. In 2019 with Tampa Bay, he hit 19 home runs, and in 2020, he became the first Korean position player to appear in the World Series.

Tampa Bay Rays' Choi Ji-man gestures toward the dugout after hitting an RBI-double off Philadelphia Phillies reliever Ranger Saurez during the fifth inning of a baseball game Sunday, May 30, 2021, in St. Petersburg. [AP/YONHAP]

After ending his U.S. career following the 2024 season, Choi returned to Korea and said he wanted to continue playing before beginning a second career as a coach. For now, however, he cannot sign with a KBO club because of the league’s two-year grace-period rule for players who bypassed the KBO draft system by signing overseas immediately out of high school. Under Article 107 of the league's regulations, a player must wait two years from the end of a contract with a foreign professional club before joining a KBO team. Choi plans to enter the September draft and begin playing in the KBO next year.

Choi is the first player to trigger Article 107, which came into effect in 1999, because the KBO held a one-off special draft for overseas players in 2007. Players who took part were drafted by teams that effectively held the right to sign them if they ever decided to move to the KBO. Choo, who joined the KBO in 2021, was part of that draft and was immediately able to join the SSG Landers. Choi did not sign with the Mariners until 2010.

Choi enlisted as a social service worker in May last year to fulfil his mandatory military service, but was discharged after three months because of his right knee, which he had surgery on in 2021. That situation fueled expectations that he could join Ulsan. Under the current rules, the club is allowed to select players who moved overseas without first joining a domestic professional team, making Choi eligible to sign.

Choi has been training on his own and regaining fitness, and the process has been going smoothly. He weighed a move to Japan’s independent leagues against joining Ulsan to regain a feel for live games, and Japanese clubs also made offers.

In the end, Choi decided that experiencing the Futures League would be the better path. Because he returned to Korea hoping to contribute to the sport not only as a player but eventually as a coach, he concluded that starting at the ground level of domestic baseball would be more meaningful.

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 KIM HYO-KYOUNG [[email protected]]