Unexpected Top 1 Nomination...KT's choice is former high school student Park Jihoon
Sep 17, 2025
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KBO hosted the rookie draft at Lotte Hotel World Crystal Ballroom in Seoul on the 17th.
The KT Wiz, who had the sixth overall nomination, nominated high school pitcher Park Ji-hoon. Jeonju High School will be able to produce the first round for the second consecutive year after Jung Woo-ju (Hanwha) last year.
Park Ji-hoon pitched 55 ⅔ innings in 16 games this season, recording 2 wins, 2 losses and a 1.77 ERA.
The 2026 KBO Rookie Draft will be carried out in a full draft method. The nomination will be made from round 1 to round 11, followed by Kiwoom-NC-Hanwha-Lotte-SSG-KT-Doosan-LG-Samsung-KIA, which is the reverse order of the team's ranking in 2024.
In accordance with the KBO rules, there were three cases in which the 2026 rookie designation rights were traded with players, a total of four transfers of designation rights. NC has the third and fourth round nominations received from Hanwha and SSG, respectively, while Kiwoom has the first and fourth round nominations received from KIA. Therefore, if all clubs exercise all nomination rights, Kiwoom and NC will appoint 13 players, Hanwha and SSG 10 players, KIA 9 players, and other clubs 11 players will wear KBO league team uniforms.
A total of 1,261 people are eligible for this year's rookie draft, including 930 high school graduates, 261 college graduates, 51 early draft applicants, and 19 other players, including overseas flax and professionals.
Players from the KBO Next-Level Training Camp, which has been held every year since 2022 to foster amateur prospects intensively, will also participate in the draft. Fifteen people were selected in the 2025 rookie draft, especially three in the first round.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
