Dodgers, Padres set to open 2024 season in South Korea

A total of six games will be played outside the United States and Canada next season, including a season-opening, two-game set between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres in Seoul, South Korea.

Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association made the joint announcement Wednesday.

For the ninth time in major league history, the season will start in a country other than the U.S. or Canada when the Dodgers and Padres clash on March 20-21 for the first big-league games in South Korea.

The Houston Astros and Colorado Rockies are then set to meet for a two-game set in Mexico City on April 27-28 before the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies play a pair of games in London on June 8-9, a series that had already been announced.

Spring training will also feature international games next season, as the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays are scheduled to play in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on March 9 and March 10.

"Major League Baseball is incredibly excited for this extensive slate of international games in 2024," MLB commissioner Rob Manfred Jr. said in the release. "Our recent efforts have produced strong enthusiasm around the globe and we look forward to building on that foundation with returns to Mexico City and London, while also opening the season in Korea for the first time.

"We are thrilled that our fans across four different countries outside the United States and Canada will have the opportunity to see the game's stars."

A regular-season opener hasn't happened in a country without a major league team since 2019, when the Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners squared off in Tokyo.

Los Angeles hasn't made an international trip since 2018, while San Diego went global much more recently, facing the San Francisco Giants in Mexico City this past April 29-30.

Of the six teams participating in the MLB World Tour during the regular season in 2024, the Phillies have gone the longest without traveling outside the U.S. and Canada, last doing so in 1977.