Former big league first baseman Jiman Choi is returning to his home country of South Korea to begin 21 months of mandatory military service, according to a report from Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The eight-year MLB veteran hopes to continue his playing career with the Korea Baseball Organization in 2027, once he has completed that conscripted service.
Since 1957, male citizens of South Korea between the ages of 18 and 35 have been required to complete between 18 and 21 months of military service. Topkin notes that the soon-to-be 34-year-old veteran was able to delay his military service until the age of 37 due to his status as a legal permanent resident of the United States. This status allowed Choi to sign with the Mariners back in 2010 and begin a baseball career stateside. Choi made his MLB debut during the 2016 season as a member of the Angels and briefly appeared for the Yankees and Brewers before arriving in Tampa and breaking out with the Rays during the 2018 season.
Choi was a quality piece for the Rays across his five seasons with the club, slashing .245/.352/.431 (120 wRC+) in 414 games with the organization. Among players with at least a full season of playing time in Tampa during Choi’s time with the club, that wRC+ ranks sixth behind only Tommy Pham, Brandon Lowe, Randy Arozarena, Yandy Diaz, and Austin Meadows. Choi’s time with the Rays coincided with four years of the club’s five-season stretch of consecutive postseason appearances, and his performance in 29 playoff games for those clubs was very impressive. Choi slashed .221/.398/.412 in the playoffs with the Rays overall, including a .250/.412/.425 slash line during the team’s run to the World Series in 2020.
Choi was traded to the Pirates in November of 2022 and split his 2023 campaign between Pittsburgh and San Diego. Unfortunately, the then-32-year-old veteran struggled to a lackluster .163/.239/.385 slash line that year while being limited to just 39 games by injuries. He signed a minor league deal with the Mets prior to the 2024 campaign but was once again hampered by injuries and eventually departed the organization in June of last year. Choi has not played in affiliated ball since, and now he’s set to leave MLB behind.
While Choi has his eyes on participating in his home country’s KBO league to continue his playing career, there will be obstacles to that goal. The first is his aforementioned military service. Topkin notes that Choi is set to have a non-combat role (rather than serving in the active South Korean military) and will be able to continue baseball workouts and training when not working, but it’s worth noting that the veteran will be 36 years old when he’s first eligible to suit up for a KBO team.
Also, Choi won’t be a free agent as he enters the KBO, since he is still restricted by the league’s draft rules. It’s unclear whether a KBO team will have interest in drafting a slugger in his mid-thirties with a lengthy injury history, but it is worth noting that former big leaguers like Shin-Soo Choo and Hyun Jin Ryu have gone to the KBO after their MLB careers and played into their late 30s and early 40s. Across the KBO league’s 10 teams this year, 35 players are playing in their age-36 season or older, giving some reason for optimism that Choi will be able to leverage his pedigree of MLB success into a role with the league two years from now.
Regardless of what happens with the future of his playing career in South Korea, Choi departs MLB a lifetime .234/.338/.426 hitter across 525 games in the majors. MLBTR congratulates Choi on a fine MLB career and wishes him all the best in his upcoming service, eventual return to his playing career, and any additional future endeavors.
Can Choi get an immediate 5-month leave of absence to play first base for the Red Sox?
He wasn’t hitting a lick with the AAA Syracuse Mets in ‘24. Why would the Red Sox think he could turn it around a year later nearing his 35th birthday??
CT – The Red Sox believe their revolutionary approach to hitting can make all players good hitters.
The Ji-Man had a good run in the states; those Rays teams was improbably good.
What I remember about him is that he hit Cole almost as good as Devers while with Tampa Bay.
He was the Cole killer in those ALDS games
Rays national loved him. He was a good player and you could tell he was having fun too.
Gee man, I hope he enchoi’s his time back in his home country.
Forgot all about this guy after he left the Rays
Everyone who writes for a living should know that 30s and 40s require no apostrophe, since they are neither possessive nor a contraction.
Aren’t. Everybody engaging in petty criticism of writers should probably proofread their own contractions.
Apparently, punctuation “matters”.
Oops. I just made a d@ck of myself. Sorry about that. Reading is hard.
Uh, yeah.
Different style guides may disagree, but it’s common practice in some to use an apostrophe when pluralizing numbers and acronyms in text, for visual clarity.
It has become common practice for sure, but good luck finding a professional writing style guide that actually endorses using an apostrophe for plurals. I also often see 30’s used for the decade, when it should be ’30s, to indicate the contraction. Wrong in two, different ways. Some writers seem to believe any word ending in s calls for an apostrophe. That creates some real face-palm moments.
54% of Americans read below a sixth grade level. You’re fighting a losing battle.
A sentence should never begin with a numeral.
Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Fighting losing battles is my thing.
“How can you not be pedantic about baseball?”
But also I write for a living and you’re not wrong. But how many people write for a living?
Sorry for introducing grammar pedantry to a site devoted to baseball pedantry. The direct answer to your question is: If you publish to a site of this kind, you write for a living. So, you should know how. But I am sure we are both aware that the editors were the first ones to be put up against the wall in the Internet revolution, and few care anymore. Call it a pet peeve if you like. I do.
Now, back to the baseball pedantry, already in progress…
(Incidentally, the error has since been corrected. I will take small victories where I can get them!)
A very different culture and lifestyle in South Korea, shouldn’t be easy after so many years stateside.
He graduated high school in South Korea and probably spent some part of every offseason there.
That’s the great part of S.Korea. Hopefully America can defeat the last 35 years of 78% can’t qualify now for military service. Its a shame, and makes me sick. GO S.KOREA, GO TIGERS !!
I ♥ Ji-Man. A sweetheart of a guy and a real team player.
Love the Jiman! I shook my head in wonder every time he went down into the splits at first.
2 yrs of military service man just retire had a good run