Veteran South Korean catcher Yang Eui-ji announced his retirement from international play Thursday, saying he will give way to younger backstops and will now focus on his club, Doosan Bears.

Yang played for South Korea at the World Baseball Classic (WBC) earlier this month, and the country crashed out in the first round despite Yang's two home runs and five RBIs in four games.

"The WBC was my last international competition," Yang said in a group interview after the Korea Baseball Organization season-opening media day in Seoul. "We all worked hard for it, and it would have been nice if we'd had better results."

Asked why he decided to pull out of consideration for the national team at age 35, the catcher said, "Now is the time to let younger players step up and play."

Yang made his international debut at the 2015 Premier12 and was a member of the gold medal-winning team at the 2018 Asian Games.

This past offseason, Yang reunited with the Bears, the team that drafted him in 2005. He'd signed a free agent deal with the NC Dinos before the 2019 season, and following four widely successful years there, Yang returned to where it all began for him.

"I will get to finish my career here, and I think my last mission as a player is to help this ball club as much as I can," Yang said of the team that missed the postseason in 2022, the first time that they'd not been in the playoffs since 2014. "I know how high fans' expectations are. But that doesn't put any extra pressure on my shoulders. Baseball is never about one player. I am looking forward to winning games with my teammates."

Yang is the third player to announce retirement from international competitions since the end of the WBC, joining SSG Landers starter Kim Kwang-hyun and LG Twins outfielder Kim Hyun-soo.

Source: Yonhap News Agency