Korean Baseball Player Park Dong-won, right, shows his ceremony during the game at the World Baseball Softball Confederation Premier12 at Tianmu Baseball Stadium in Taipei, Nov. 16. Yonhap
Three infielders were named winners of the top defensive award in Korean baseball for the second straight year Monday.
The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) announced the winners in the catcher and four infield positions for its second annual KBO Fielding Award on Monday.
Three of the four infield winners were honored for the second straight season: Kiwoom Heroes second baseman Kim Hye-seong, Kia Tigers shortstop Park Chan-ho and KT Wiz third baseman Heo Kyoung-min, who spent the 2024 season with the Doosan Bears.
They were joined by the first-time winner at first base, Austin Dean of the LG Twins.
Dean’s teammate at catcher, Park Dong-won, earned his first award.
The manager, nine coaches and the general manager from each of the 10 clubs cast their votes for the defensive award, and they were not allowed to vote for players on their own teams. The fielding index developed by the KBO, and its official statistics provider, Sports 2i, was used as a reference. The official fielding score, which accounts for fielding percentage and range factor, applied to all nine positions.
Votes by managers and coaches comprised 75 percent of the selection total, and the fielding stats counted for the remaining 25 percent.
When the voting totals were converted into points, Dean had 89.29 points at first base, and Kim had 91.07 points at second base. Park Chan-ho, who shared last year’s award with Oh Ji-hwan of the Twins, beat Oh this time 90 points to 82.5 points. Heo scored 90 points at third base.
For the catcher position, Park Dong-won had 90.63 points.
NC Dinos starter Kyle Hart was announced as the winner at the pitcher position Sunday, along with three outfielder winners announced the same day: Guillermo Heredia of the SSG Landers, Hong Chang-ki of the Twins and Jung Soo-bin of the Bears.
All winners will receive a trophy and 2 million won ($1,430) in prize money during the annual KBO Awards ceremony Tuesday. (Yonhap)
