Dodgers, Padres to open 2024 season with two games in South Korea

The Dodgers and San Diego Padres will take their National League West rivalry to an international stage when they open the 2024 regular season with a two-game series in Seoul, South Korea, on March 20-21.

The first Major League Baseball games ever staged in South Korea will take place more than a week before the start of the regular season for the other 28 teams, giving the Dodgers and Padres time to return to the U.S. and reacclimate for the rest of their seasons.

The Padres have been one of South Korea’s most popular teams since they signed flashy middle infielder Ha-Seong Kim before the 2021 season, and the Dodgers have a history of South Korean stars, including pitcher Chan Ho Park — who in 1994 became the first Korean player to appear in an MLB game — and pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu.

“We can’t wait to play meaningful games for the very first time in front of the outstanding baseball fans of South Korea next season,” Dodgers president and chief executive Stan Kasten said in a statement. “The Dodgers have a long and proud history of helping to grow the game abroad, highlighted by our trips to Mexico, China and Australia.”

The Dodgers opened the 2014 regular season against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Sydney, Australia, and they played a three-game regular-season series against the Padres in Monterrey in 2018.

They also played exhibitions against the Chinese Professional Baseball League All-Stars in Taiwan in 2010, against the New York Mets in Mexico City in 2004 and the Montreal Expos in Puerto Rico in 1988.

This will mark the ninth international opener outside of the U.S. and Canada for MLB and the first since the Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners opened the 2019 season with a series in Tokyo.

MLB will also stage 2024 international games between the Houston Astros and Colorado Rockies in Mexico City on April 27-28 and between the Mets and Philadelphia Phillies in London on June 8-9.