A backup catcher who never got his shot as a player is now running a team on the edge of missing the postseason. Kim Rae-won leads that fight in the newest teaser for Full Count, the SBS sports drama built around the race to become a professional baseball manager.
In the teaser released by SBS, Kim Rae-won's Hwang Jin-ho speaks directly to the doubts that followed him from his playing days. "Yes, I was a second-rate player. But why can't it be me?" he says, before adding, "I'm going to do whatever it takes to win."
Watch the teaser trailer here:
The short teaser opens on a packed stadium at night before cutting into the clubhouse, where voices question whether the daily grind is worth it. Hwang Jin-ho answers by laying down a simple rule for his players: anyone who performs well today will play tomorrow. His demand that they fight for their spot makes every place on the roster part of the same survival battle.
Full Count depicts a fierce battle for survival among people who risk everything in a cutthroat baseball world filled with schemes and power struggles. At its center is the coveted position of professional baseball manager, a job more than one coach is determined to claim. The drama promises as much tension in the dugout as on the field, where every decision can shift the fight for that job.
Kim Rae-won plays Hwang Jin-ho, the acting manager of the popular team Stars, which is on the brink of missing the postseason. Hwang Jin-ho, the team's battery coach, was once a backup catcher who earned recognition for his coaching abilities after his playing career stalled. He has remained an outsider, though, because the Stars' insular culture favors homegrown talent, and taking the acting manager job pulls him into a fierce storm of internal conflict.
His main rival is already inside the clubhouse. Park Hoon plays Jo Dong-hee, the Stars' legendary pitcher who now serves as the team's pitching coach and is widely seen as the leading candidate to become its next manager. That contrast sets up the drama's central clash: the celebrated former star who expects the job, against the former backup who was never supposed to get this close to it.
Full Count is directed by Ham Jun-ho and written by Park Myeong-rang, with production by Studio S, Betty and Creators and TPS Company. The series also marks Kim Rae-won's return to the small screen for the first time in four years. That return comes in a role built on proving people wrong, as Hwang Jin-ho tries to turn a temporary assignment into the permanent job.
The new drama follows the legacy of Stove League, the 2019 hit that sparked a baseball craze among television audiences. SBS is returning to baseball eight years after that series, this time moving the power struggle from the front office into the dugout itself. Full Count aims to capture both the fierce competition on the field and the calculated mind games and power struggles behind it.
Full Count is slated to premiere in February 2027 as an SBS Friday-Saturday drama. No international streaming platform has been announced for Full Count yet.
Source: SBS
