The year he turned 23, he was picked in the sixth round of the second-round picks by the Doosan Bears and joined the club. That winter, he passed the final round for Sangmu. From 2011, he spent two seasons in military service with Sangmu.
The breakthrough yearThe year he turned 27, he won his first game since his pro debut against LG on May 4, and on Sept. 30 he won his 10th of the season, the first 10 wins by a Doosan homegrown left-hander in 25 years.
In 2014, he set a new career high with 12 wins in the season. In 2015, he was the winning pitcher in Game 5 of the Korean Series as Doosan won the title, and he won the Choi Dong-won Award with 18-5 in 30 games. In 2016, he became the first Doosan pitcher with 15 wins in two straight years, and threw 5 scoreless innings in Game 4 of the Korean Series as Doosan won the combined title.
In 2017, he went 11-6. In 2018, he reached Doosan’s first six straight 10-win seasons. In 2019, he made it seven straight 10-win seasons, the first for a Doosan left-hander. In 2020, eight straight 10-win seasons made him the fourth player ever to do so.
In 2021, he reached 100 career wins on his sixth try, the first Doosan left-hander in franchise history to do so. In January 2022, he retired and became a commentator for KBS N Sports. In June, the first broadcast of Strongest Baseball aired.
In 2023, he appeared on Netflix’s Zombieverse. In 2024, he appeared on Strongest Baseball season 3 and TVING’s Yagu Daepyoja. In 2025, he appeared on Wavve’s dating show Binnaneun Uri Ajik Ssollo. In January 2026, he appeared in part 2 of the Immortal Songs pro baseball special.
Yoo Hee-kwan (born Jun 1, 1986) joined the Doosan Bears in 2009, the year he turned 23, and became known on Sep 30, 2013, the year he turned 27, when his 10th win of the season was the first 10 wins by a Doosan homegrown left-hander in 25 years. On Sep 19, 2021, the year he turned 35, he reached 100 career wins, and in 2022 he retired.
Ages are by calendar year (the year minus the birth year), birthdays aside.
Graduated from Chung-Ang University and was picked by the Doosan Bears in the sixth round of the second-round picks of the 2009 rookie draft.
Source 01 · Hankook Ilbo (Korean) · Announces retirement · opens in a new tabSource 28 · Sports Donga (Korean) · Yoo Hee-kwan profile · opens in a new tab The date of the pick and of joining could not be confirmed.Applied to Sangmu after the season and passed the final round after the first. Reported along with Doosan’s Oh Hyun-taek and Won Yong-muk, to enter the Nonsan training camp on the 29th.
Source 03 · OSEN (Korean) · Final Sangmu admissions · opens in a new tabSource 04 · OSEN (Korean) · First-round Sangmu acceptance · opens in a new tab The date is that of the reports; the actual date of entry could not be confirmed.Spent the 2011 and 2012 seasons with the Korea Armed Forces Athletic Corps (Sangmu). Apart from those two years, he played the other 11 seasons for Doosan only.
Source 02 · Busan Ilbo (Korean) · Retires with 101 career wins · opens in a new tab The date of his discharge could not be confirmed.Started in place of Dustin Nippert and held LG to no runs on 5 hits over 5⅔ innings. It was his first start since he debuted as a pro in 2009.
Source 05 · Newsis (Korean) · Yoo Hee-kwan’s first win · opens in a new tabSource 07 · Newsis (Korean) · Lee Jae-hak and Yoo Hee-kwan in a two-man rookie-of-the-year race · opens in a new tabGave up 2 runs on 7 hits over 5 innings for his 10th win of the season. It was the first time in 25 years that a homegrown Doosan left-hander won 10 games. In the rookie-of-the-year race that year he was named as one of two contenders with NC’s Lee Jae-hak, and Lee won the award.
Started at Mokdong against Nexen and held it scoreless over 7 innings, helping the team into the playoff. He had debuted in 2009 but had pitched only 16⅔ first-team innings through last year; this regular season he went 10-7 with 1 save and a 3.53 ERA.
Source 08 · Yonhap News Agency (Korean) · Semi-playoff Game 5 · opens in a new tabOn Sept. 12 he beat Hanwha for his 11th win of the season, passing last year’s 10 for his career high in a season.
Source 10 · Sports Kyunghyang (Korean) · 12 wins in 2014 · opens in a new tabBeat KIA on the 8th for his 12th win of the season. He finished the year 12-9.
Source 10 · Sports Kyunghyang (Korean) · 12 wins in 2014 · opens in a new tabSource 16 · Star News (Korean) · Six straight 10-win seasons · opens in a new tabStarted against Samsung at Jamsil and gave up 2 runs over 6 innings to become the winning pitcher in his first Korean Series win. Doosan won the title in that game.
Source 11 · Star News (Korean) · 2015 Korean Series Game 5 · opens in a new tabReceived it at the ceremony at Busan Bank headquarters. That year he started 30 games and went 18-5 over 189.2 innings.
Source 12 · Joy News 24 (Korean) · 2nd Choi Dong-won Award · opens in a new tabGave up 5 runs over 7⅓ innings for his 15th win of the season. He is the first Doosan pitcher with 15 wins in two straight years.
Source 13 · Newsis (Korean) · Second straight 15-win season · opens in a new tabStarted against NC at Changwon Masan Stadium and went 5 scoreless innings. Doosan won 8-1 for back-to-back Korean Series titles and its first combined title in 21 years.
Source 14 · Yonhap News Agency (Korean) · Yoo Hee-kwan in Game 4 of the 2016 Korean Series · opens in a new tabSource 15 · Yonhap News Agency (Korean) · Doosan’s 2016 double title · opens in a new tabFinished the regular season that year 11-6.
Source 16 · Star News (Korean) · Six straight 10-win seasons · opens in a new tab The date it was reached could not be confirmed.Gave up 2 runs over 6⅔ innings to reach 10 wins on the season. It is the club’s first six straight 10-win seasons.
Source 16 · Star News (Korean) · Six straight 10-win seasons · opens in a new tabA win over KIA made him the club’s first left-hander with seven straight 10-win seasons.
Source 17 · Yonhap News Agency (Korean) · Seven straight 10-win seasons · opens in a new tabA win over KIA in Gwangju gave him eight straight 10-win seasons, the fourth player ever to do so.
Source 18 · Edaily (Korean) · Eight straight 10-win seasons · opens in a new tabGave up no runs on 6 hits over 6 innings to reach 100 wins on his sixth try. He is the 32nd in KBO League history, the 7th left-hander and the first Doosan left-hander in franchise history.
Source 19 · OSEN (Korean) · 100th career win · opens in a new tabThe Doosan club said he had conveyed his intention to retire. His first-team career totals are 281 games, 1,410 innings, 101-69, 1 save and 4 holds, with a 4.58 ERA.
Source 01 · Hankook Ilbo (Korean) · Announces retirement · opens in a new tabChose broadcast commentary as his first path after retiring and signed with KBS N Sports.
Source 20 · Sports Kyunghyang (Korean) · Yoo Hee-kwan the commentator · opens in a new tab The date is that of the report; the date of the contract could not be confirmed.A baseball variety show with Lee Seung-yuop as manager. His name was on the list of players confirmed for the cast in a May 30 report.
Source 21 · TV Daily (Korean) · Strongest Baseball cast · opens in a new tabSource 22 · OhmyNews (Korean) · Strongest Baseball first broadcast · opens in a new tabA variety show about carrying out quests in a Seoul turned into a zombie world. He attended the press conference billed as a baseball commentator.
Source 23 · OhmyNews (Korean) · Zombieverse press conference · opens in a new tabStrongest Baseball, begun in June 2022, entered season 3, and Sports Q named Yoo Hee-kwan, with manager Kim Sung-keun, as a mainstay of the cast.
Source 24 · Sports Q (Korean) · Baseball variety shows · opens in a new tab The broadcast date of season 3 could not be confirmed.Appeared with Ji Sang-ryeol, Lee Dae-ho and others in a variety show in which one fan from each of the 10 clubs debates baseball.
Source 24 · Sports Q (Korean) · Baseball variety shows · opens in a new tab Confirmed only as airing from July; the date of its first release could not be confirmed.A dating show whose male cast includes the former baseball players Yoo Hee-kwan, Park Jae-wook, Jo Byung-wook and Min Kyung-soo. It has 10 episodes of 40 minutes.
Source 25 · OSEN (Korean) · Wavve’s August lineup · opens in a new tab The date is the first release date scheduled in the Aug. 3 report.Took the first stage in part 2 of the pro baseball special. Lim Jun-hyung won that episode.
Source 26 · Top Star News (Korean) · Immortal Songs pro baseball special · opens in a new tabSource 27 · Newsis (Korean) · Immortal Songs on the 17th · opens in a new tabEND OF SELECTED RECORDSSelected records, 2009–2026 · not a complete list of work. “Key moment” is an editorial label, not a measure of success.
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Sports · South Korea
Jun 1, 1986 —
Ages are counted from the birth year 1986: the year of the event minus 1986, birthdays aside. “Key moment” labels and the connecting story are AgeTrail's editorial reading.
Fact-checked: 2026.09.30 · An independent archive, not affiliated with the person or their agency.