Sports
Why Dodgers prospect Hyun-Seok Jang could become one of MLB's next Korean stars
During a workout at Dodgers spring training recently this spring, Rob Hill was stopped by a bystander confused by a case of mistaken identity.
The person had seen Hill, the Dodgers director of minor league pitching, talking with a tall, lanky, athletic Asian player on the backfields at Camelback Ranch.
Was that, the bystander asked, two-time MVP Shohei Ohtani?
No, Hill politely informed them. The player in question was actually Hyun-Seok Jang.
While Ohtani and fellow Japanese star Yoshinobu Yamamoto have inevitably dominated headlines during Dodgers spring training this year, club officials have quietly raved about the other talented Asian product embarking on his first spring with the team.
Jang, a 20-year-old right-handed pitcher who signed for $900,000 out of South Korea last year, doesn’t have the name recognition of a big-league standout yet. But, in several years, the club is hopeful he’ll be staging his own MLB ascension — one the team never got to experience with Ohtani more than a decade ago.
When Ohtani was coming out of high school in Japan in 2012, the Dodgers attempted to persuade him to move to the United States immediately.
They were enamored with his capabilities as a pitcher. They visualized his road to major-league stardom. And, had Ohtani’s preference to remain a two-way player not ultimately persuaded him to stay in Japan and play in the Nippon Professional Baseball league, he might have been a Dodger long before signing his record $700-million contract this offseason.
Last summer, Jang faced a similar set of circumstances, albeit without the two-way caveat.
A native of Changwon, South Korea, a port city on the country’s southern coast, Jang emerged as not only the nation’s top high school player, but one of its more promising young pitching products in recent memory.
He has all the tools of a potential future MLB starter, from his 6-foot-4 frame to his upper-90s mph fastball to an array of breaking pitches that can induce swing and miss.
Yet, like Ohtani, he had the option to bide his time until then playing in his home country — where he was widely expected to be the No. 1 pick in the most recent KBO League draft, and would have been a prominent national figure in Korea’s baseball community.
“He would’ve started in the KBO, at the top level, right away,” said Daniel Kim, an independent South Korean journalist who has contributed to ESPN’s coverage of the nation’s domestic league. “If you’re a top one, two, three [high school] player, you get a lot of recognition.”
However, in what was a relatively polarizing move in South Korea, Jang decided to forge a different path.
As he neared the end of his high school career, he announced his intention to sign with an MLB team. Last August, the Dodgers were the ones to secure his signature. And now the team — which just so happens to open its season Wednesday in Seoul against the San Diego Padres — is hoping he can become their next Korean success story, following in the footsteps of past star pitchers like Chan Ho Park and Hyun-Jin Ryu.
“We see a future with top-of-the-rotation starter stuff,” Hill said. “It’s just a matter of getting there and doing it. He can do so much with the ball. He’s so adept at trying to improve. I think the sky’s the limit.”
Jang, who declined an interview request for this story, explained at the time of his signing that he wanted to move to the U.S. to expedite his path to the major leagues.
He noted MLB clubs’ advanced infrastructure for pitching development, from advanced analysis to high-tech training facilities.
He said he was eager to face American competition, despite the unglamorous minor-league lifestyle of small towns and long bus trips that come with it.
Most of all, he wanted to test himself competitively, unafraid of uprooting his life and moving 6,000 miles away to a country where he speaks little (though more every day, Hill said) of the English language.
“It was a tough decision for me because I dreamed of pitching both in the KBO and MLB,” Jang said in a statement last August, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency. “But ultimately, I wanted to challenge myself in the best league in the world and decided to take a crack at MLB.”
To Dodgers executives, it was the last piece of confirmation they needed.
“I think it’s a really good indication of make-up and work ethic,” general manager Brandon Gomes said of Jang’s decision.
Added Hill: “He’s incredibly ambitious … He doesn’t care necessarily about everyone’s opinions. He just wants to be good.”
There were plenty of other teams, of course, interested in the pitcher. The Texas Rangers were seen as the strongest other contender to sign him, according to one person with knowledge of the situation who was unauthorized to speak publicly.
At the time Jang announced his MLB intentions, the Dodgers also lacked the kind of money remaining in their annual international bonus pool to seriously make a run at signing him, forcing the front office to quickly try and seek out a trade.
A deal quietly came together on Aug. 4 of last year, when the Dodgers flipped prospects Aldrin Batista and Maximo Martinez to the Chicago White Sox in exchange for international slot money.
A week later, Jang’s signing with the team was official — a turn of events even the pitcher acknowledged came as a bit of a surprise.
“I knew they were interested in me,” he said at a news conference announcing the decision. “But I didn’t think I’d end up signing with this team.”
Before coming to the U.S., Jang played with the South Korean national team in last year’s Asian Games. By helping the country win a gold medal in the event, he earned an exemption from its mandatory military service obligations, clearing the way for him to play full-time in America this year.
According to Dodgers vice president of player development Will Rhymes, Jang will likely start this season in the rookie-level Arizona Complex league. Currently ranked as the club’s 18th-best prospect by MLB Pipeline, he is still at least two to three years away from the big leagues.
In the meantime, Jang has worked closely with Hill and the rest of the Dodgers player development staff this spring on refining his expansive repertoire of pitches — which includes a sinker, changeup, curveball and slider in addition to his tantalizing high-velocity four-seamer.
“I mean, what doesn’t he throw?” Hill joked about Jang’s arsenal. “The actual command and ability to manipulate the baseball, it’s pretty advanced for his age.”
When Gomes first met Jang in person at the club’s DodgerFest event last month, he was struck by how the then-teenage prospect (Jang only turned 20 last week) sized up to Bobby Miller, the 6-foot-5 right-hander coming off a promising rookie season in 2023.
“When Bobby doesn’t make you look small, you’re like, ‘OK, this dude is put together,’” Gomes said. “With that body and his fastball quality right now, he certainly [projects as a] major-league starting pitcher.”
Once upon a time, the Dodgers thought something similar about a high-school-aged Ohtani.
In Jang, they see the chance to develop another future star from the other side of the world.
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LAS VEGAS – Finn Balor and Dominik Mysterio were once brothers in arms in the Judgment Day. The two helped the faction run “Monday Night Raw” for several years.
As championships and opportunities came and went, the rift between Balor and Mysterio grew. It came to a head when Balor caused Mysterio to lose the Intercontinental Championship to Penta. Balor leaving the Judgment Day left Mysterio and Liv Morgan as the leaders with JD McDonagh, Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez sticking around.
Finn Balor is introduced before his match against Dominik Mysterio during WrestleMania 42 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nev., on April 19, 2026. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
The latter four chose to ride with Mysterio and attacked Balor on one episode of Raw.
The bitter war led to a match Sunday night at WrestleMania 42. To make matters more interesting, Raw General Manager Adam Pearce made the match a street fight hours before the show was set to begin.
Balor had vowed to bring the “Demon” out and he certainly did.
JACOB FATU PUTS DREW MCINTYRE IN THE ‘REAR VIEW’ IN UNSANCTIONED MATCH AT WRESTLEMANIA 42
Finn Balor is introduced before his match against Dominik Mysterio during WrestleMania 42 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nev., on April 19, 2026. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Balor made his way to the ring in his “Demon” gear, dripping with red and black paint. Mysterio was in a mask with other Mysterio supporters.
The two then proceeded to beat the crud out of each other.
Mysterio wrapped Balor’s head in between a chair and hit a 619 on him. He tried to pin Balor, but to no avail. At another point, Mysterio tossed Balor through a table set up in the corner.
As many have learned, it’s hard to keep your demons down. Mysterio learned the hard way.
Balor would not give up. Balor clotheslined Mysterio, hit him with a chair multiple times before wrapping his head in between the chair and drop-kicking him into the corner. Balor put Mysterio onto a table and hit the Coup de Grâce for the win.
Dominik Mysterio is introduced before his match against Finn Balor during WrestleMania 42 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nev., on April 19, 2026. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
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Balor excised his own demons, while Mysterio is still haunted.
DENVER — What do you know? The once-stampeding Dodgers have been caged by the Colorado Rockies.
With a 9-6 loss Sunday at Coors Field, the two-time defending World Series champions lost back-to-back games for the first time this season. The Dodgers again couldn’t hold a lead, letting the Rockies tee off for 15 hits.
Nor could the Dodgers keep up offensively at the hitter-friendly park — though they put some pressure on in the ninth inning, when Shohei Ohtani led off with a ground-rule double and the Dodgers scored twice to cut the lead to three runs. Then the new guy, Ryan Ward, made the final out in his big league debut, robbed of a hit and a chance to keep chipping away by a diving Troy Johnston in right field.
Before that, the Rockies — who beat the Dodgers twice in 13 meetings all of last season — chased starter Roki Sasaki from the game in the fifth inning and then ruffled the Dodgers’ relievers. That included closer Edwin Díaz, who came on in the eighth and promptly gave up three singles, a walk and two runs before being pulled with the Dodgers trailing 8-4.
Dodgers starting pitcher Roki Sasaki gave up three runs on seven hits in 4-2/3 innings Sunday against the Rockies in Denver.
(David Zalubowski / Associated Press)
He and Blake Treinen combined to face eight batters without getting an out.
“They both weren’t sharp,” said manager Dave Roberts, who had theories but not many answers — though he did have real concern, especially about Díaz, who recently had his right knee checked out by the medical staff.
Roberts said the closer wanted to pitch after nine days off, even though it wasn’t a save situation. But his velocity was slightly down (95.4 mph vs. 95.8) and so, “today was a tough evaluation,” the manager said.
“It really was,” Roberts said. “Because, you know, I know what it’s supposed to look like, and when it doesn’t look like that, it gets a little concerning, really.”
And losing for the second time to the Rockies, who are now 9-13? Being in danger of losing their four-game series, after arriving in Denver without having lost to a National League opponent, against a club that hasn’t made the postseason since 2018?
It’s well below the bar the Dodgers have set, and it added a bitter note to Ward’s otherwise sweet debut.
Ward punched a big league clock for the first time wearing No. 67 and cranked his first hit off Rockies starter Michael Lorenzen in the fourth inning, lining a changeup to right field for a single that scored Andy Pages, made it 3-0 and got the 20-some members of Ward’s party up, jumping in place, hugging and high-fiving.
“When I was on first base, I got to see them all jumping around up there,” Ward said. “That was a pretty special moment.”
He also singled in the sixth and swung on the first pitch in his first at-bat, a fly out in the third inning.
The Dodgers gave Sasaki a 2-0 lead in the third. Alex Freeland drove in Hyeseong Kim, and Shohei Ohtani doubled in Freeland — and extended his career-best on-base streak to 51 games, moving past Willie Keeler into third place in Dodgers history.
Sasaki went 4-2/3 innings, threw 78 pitches and gave up three runs on seven hits, striking out two and walking two. His ERA after his fourth start: 6.11, worst in the six-man rotation.
The Dodgers fell behind 6-5 in the seventh when Treinen — who was cleared Friday after he was struck in the head by a batted ball during batting practice — gave up four consecutive hits, including a two-run home run by Mickey Moniak.
The result likely will be a minor detail when Ward tells the story years from now about getting the call after first baseman Freddie Freeman was placed on the paternity list.
The Dodgers’ No. 19 prospect and reigning Pacific Coast League MVP spent the last seven years in the minors. Last season, he hit 36 home runs and drove in 122 runs with a .937 on-base-plus-slugging percentage for triple-A Oklahoma City, and he has a 1.020 OPS and four homers this year.
Ward made it a point to improve his chase rate, draw more walks and get on base more frequently, everything the Dodgers asked of him. He also passed the broadest patience test.
“The plate discipline, being a better hitter … he’s done all that,” Roberts said. “He’s improved his defense. But honestly, for me, just not to let his lack of opportunity in the big leagues deter him. That’s easy when you get frustrated and let it affect performance, and he hasn’t done that.”
If anything, Ward said, the waiting made him better.
“I used it to keep going. ‘OK, if I’m not there yet, what do I have to do to get there?’” he said. “‘What part of my game do I need to work on to keep getting better?’
“I used it as fire to keep working.”
That will be the Dodgers’ assignment too.
In the finale of the four-game series Monday, the Dodgers are expected to start left-hander Justin Wrobleski (2-0, 2.12) against Colorado left-hander Jose Quintana (0-1, 5.63).
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LAS VEGAS – Danhausen’s curse may be real after all – just ask Stephen A. Smith and the New York Mets.
While the latter dropped their 10th game in a row, Smith got his share of the curse on Saturday night during Night 1 of WrestleMania 42. Smith was in attendance for WWE’s premier event of the year and heard massive boos from the crowd.
Stephen A. Smith attends WrestleMania 42: Night 1 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 18, 2026. (Andrew Timms/WWE)
Smith was sitting ringside to watch the action. The ESPN star appeared on the videoboard above the ring at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. He appeared to embrace the reaction and smiled through it.
The boos came after Danhausen appeared on “First Take” on Friday – much to the chagrin of the sports pundit. Smith appeared perplexed by Danhausen’s appearance. Smith said he heard about Danhausen and called him a “bad luck charm.”
Danhausen said Smith had been “rude” to him and put the dreaded “curse” on the commentator.
WWE STAR DANHAUSEN SAYS METS ‘CURSE’ ISN’T EXACTLY LIFTED AS TEAM DROPS NINTH STRAIGHT GAME
Stephen A. Smith attends WrestleMania 42: Night 1 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 18, 2026. (Andrew Timms/WWE)
Smith is far from the only one dealing with the effects of the “curse.”
Danhausen agreed to “un-curse” the Mets during their losing streak. However, he told Fox News Digital earlier this week that there was a reason why the curse’s removal didn’t take full effect.
“I did un-curse the Mets. But it didn’t work because, I believe it was Brian Gewirtz who did not pay Danhausen. He did not send me my money so it did not take full effect,” Danhausen said. “Once I have the money, perhaps it will actually work because right now it’s probably about a half of an un-cursing. It’s like a layaway situation.”
Danhausen enters the arena before his match against Kit Wilson during SmackDown at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on April 10, 2026. (Eakin Howard/Getty Images)
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On “Friday Night SmackDown,” WWE stars like The Miz and Kit Wilson were also targets of Danhausen’s curse.
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