Sunday proved to be a momentous day for SSG Landers third baseman Jeong Choi. The 39-year-old was already 1-for-2 on the day when he stepped to the plate in the sixth inning and singled to center field. The at-bat marked the 10,000th plate appearance of Choi’s long career.

In doing so, he became the first player in KBO history to reach 10,000 career plate appearances. For some perspective, Baseball Reference lists 87 players in MLB history to reach that mark (Andrew McCutchen is the active leader at 9,768).

Choi already stands as the league’s all-time home run leader with 527 (the 39th player to hit 500-plus home runs between MLB, the NPB, and the KBO). Entering play on Sunday, the 22-year veteran held a .285/.389/.530 slash line for his career.

He’ll soon have company in this new club, though. Samsung Lions outfielder Hyoung-Woo Choi entered the day with 9,928 PA, while KT Wiz outfielder/first baseman Hyun-Soo Kim is at 9,544.

HW Choi, 42, has hit .311/.401/.531 over his 21-year career. With 2,630 hits entering play on Sunday, he stands as the league’s all-time hits leader.

Kim, 38, would already be over the 10K mark if we included the 584 PA he received with the Orioles and Phillies from 2016-17. He’s hit .312/.393/.473 with 2,576 hits during his 19 seasons in the KBO.

Bill Travers — a 6th-round pick in 1970 by the Brewers out of Norwood, MA — made his debut in 1974 and spent nine seasons in the big leagues, finishing with a 65-71 record and 4.10 ERA (94 ERA+) over 1120.2 IP (205 G, 168 GS). His best season came in 1976 when he posted a 2.81 ERA (124 ERA+) in 240.0 IP and made his lone All-Star appearance.

Tom Glavine — a 2nd-round pick in 1984 by the Braves out of Billerica, MA — made his debut in 1987 and spent 22 seasons in the majors, finishing with a 305-203 record and 3.54 ERA (118 ERA+) over 4413.1 IP (682 GS). The 10-time All-Star, 4-time Silver Slugger Award winner, and two-time Cy Young Award winner was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2014.

Travers and Glavine are, to date, the only left-hander pitchers to be drafted (and sign) out of high school in Massachusetts to reach MLB.

Thomas White — a 1st-round (35th overall) pick in 2023 by the Marlins out of Andover, MA — has yet to make his MLB debut. MLB Pipeline ranked White at No. 17 on its Top 100 prospect list heading into the 2026 season. The 21-year-old has posted a 2.69 ERA in 210.2 IP as a pro since being drafted and is currently pitching at Triple-A, waiting for his opportunity to join Travers and Glavine’s select club.

Brody Bumila — a 6’9” southpaw pitching at Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro, MA; he also led the school to a state basketball title this winter (averaging 30.6 PPG and 15.2 RPG during the season, then 40.8 PPG and 20.8 RPG in the postseason) — has been drawing plenty ot attention from MLB scouts this spring. Bumila, who ranks at No. 22 on MLB Pipeline’s latest update to its draft rankings, is considered a strong contender to be selected in the first round of this summer’s draft.

Bumila will certainly attract even more attention following his latest outing on Saturday: a 20-strikeout, seven-inning no-hitter. Just one batter reached base against him (a hit batter to start the game, who would come around to score on two stolen bases and a passed ball). Bumila reportedly reached 100 mph on radar guns during the outing.

Per MaxPreps’ Jordan Divens, Bumila has allowed just one hit and struck out 69 hitters in 27.0 IP. He’s also 10-for-35 (.286) at the plate with 2 2B, 2 HR, and 10 RBI.

DJ LeMahieu was announced last Wednesday as the new manager for the Royal Oak Leprechauns — one of 28 teams in the Northwoods League, a summer collegiate league. The Leprechauns open their 2026 season on May 26, per the initial press release.

The move is something of a homecoming for LeMahieu, who attended high school nearby in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The versatile infielder then attended LSU before becoming a 2nd-round pick by the Cubs in the 2009 Draft. He’d make his MLB debut with the Cubs in 2011, but was traded to the Rockies after the season, where he’d play until reaching free agency after 2018. His last seven seasons came with the Yankees. Overall, in 15 years in the big leagues, LeMahieu slashed .289/.350/.409 (100 OPS+; i.e., exactly league-average) with 278 2B, 126 HR, and 663 RBI while going to three All-Star Games, collecting four Gold Glove Awards, and winning a batting title in each league (2016, NL; 2019, AL).

LeMahieu has remained closely involved in supporting the sport in his hometown. He reportedly owns and operates “a premier baseball and softball training facility” in the area known as the Stevens Complex, which actually serves as the home field for his high school team today.

The CPBL (Chinese Professional Baseball League, a six-team league based in Taiwan) has a 120-game schedule for each club (the number is scheduled to increase to 144 in 2027). The league uses a “split-season format”, where the winner of each half qualifies for the postseason along with a third team that finishes with the best overall record without winning one of the half-seasons.

Entering play on Monday, teams are roughly halfway through the first half-season. The Wei Chuan Dragons lead the six teams with an 18-11-1 record, holding a two-game lead over the TSG Hawks (16-13-1).

As I mentioned when assembling our CPBL foreign player tracker, each team is allowed to roster up to five foreign-born players, though it has typically been rare for teams to carry more than three on the active roster at a given time. Let’s check in on how the group of players is producing:

Dragons (18-11-1)

Hawks (16-13-1)

U-Lions (15-13-1)

Guardians (14-13-0)

Monkeys (12-15-1)

Brothers (9-19-1)