Catcher GoAT 27.7 billion men proved Lee Seung-yeop's earnestness... Yang Eui-ji won the most in the '9th GG' catcher category
In next season, the players will work hard so that coach Lee Seung-yeop can cheer."
At the end of last season, the Doosan Bears appointed Lee Seung-yeop, who has no managerial experience, as the team's head coach. The team had a catcher named Park Se-hyuk (NC Dinos), but Lee emphasized reinforcement of the catcher as soon as he was appointed. He wanted Yang Eui-ji, 36, who came to the market as a free agent, to be arrested.
Yang Eui-ji, who has been active in NC for four years, rejoined his old team for up to 15.2 billion won for six years and already gave great satisfaction by leading the team for one season and monopolizing the love of coach Lee Seung-yeop.
In 129 games this season, he hit .305 (134 hits in 439 at-bats) with 17 home runs, 68 RBIs, 56 runs, eight steals, 57 walks, 0.396 on-base percentage, 0.475 slugging percentage, and 0.870 OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) were recognized as the best catcher once again.
Yang Eui-ji was selected as the winner of the catcher category with 73.5% of the vote at the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO Golden Glove Awards held at the COEX Auditorium in Samseong-dong, Seoul, on the 9th.
He closely followed Lee Seung-yeop (10 times), the most in this category, for the ninth time ever, and won the eighth time as a catcher, becoming the KBO's "Greatest of all time" beyond Kim Dong-soo (7 times).
Yang Eui-ji, a graduate of Songjeong-dong Elementary School, Mudeung Middle School, and Jinheung High School, joined the police baseball team (Sangmu) immediately after his debut and completed his mandatory military service, and returned to the team in 2010 to take the main spot, winning the late rookie award.
Since then, he has been so active that it is difficult to pick a player who had a very disappointing season. In particular, he has officially established himself as the KBO's strongest catcher since 2014. He is a catcher with a lot of physical burden, but his batting from his soft swing form has not been pushed by any fielders. He became a batter with a guaranteed 20 home runs and has been deployed to the central lineup all the time.
He played in 97 games in 2014, but he also garnered a batting average of 0.294, 10 homers and 46 RBIs in his career to become the first hero of the golden glove. Since then, he has become one of the best hitters in the league, leaving his position and missing out on batting average of .300 only once during the nine seasons.
It was hard to find a catcher who could outperform Yang Eui-ji in the Golden Glove, which emphasizes a lot of batting ability. He gave up the Golden Glove to Kang Min-ho (Samsung Lions) in 2017, but that was the only year that Yang Eui-ji had not received the Golden Glove in the last 10 years.
After moving to NC for four years and 12.5 billion won in 2019, he became the second catcher's batting champion since Lee Man-soo with a batting average of 0.354. The following year, he led NC to its first championship, and in 2021, he won the Golden Glove as a designated hitter, although he played few catchers.
Yang Eui-ji, who joined his former team ahead of this season, became the most expensive man in the KBO, earning a total of 27.7 billion won only as a FA twice.
He proved the reason again this season. Yang Eui-ji was a constant when drafting the lineup. Coach Lee Seung-yeop was always worried that Yang Eui-ji would feel physically burdened, and he sighed when Yang Eui-ji rested. That is how indispensable he was to the team.
Reid, a clever pitcher, is also a rising star. Unlike his dependable physique and good impression, which earned him the nickname "fox in bear mask," he is better at water fights than anyone else, and is receiving rave reviews from pitchers for calling for a combination of balls that catch opponents off guard.
Eight stolen bases are also numbers that increase his value. Yang Eui-ji, considered one of the slow feet in the team, was able to steal the base eight times with a 100 percent success rate of stolen bases because of his extraordinary baseball intelligence.
It was a year when Doosan, well known for its stingy investment, invested 15.2 billion won in Yang Eui-ji.
After winning the Golden Glove award, Yang Eui-ji said, "I am grateful to the staff and reporters who gave me nine big awards. My family had a hard time moving to different teams this year, and it took me some time to adjust. Thank you for following me well," adding, "I am grateful to Doosan fans who cheered me up so that I could do well again. Whenever I receive this award, I feel great. I will become a senior who sets an example for the rest of my baseball career. I will end it by showing good performance to my juniors."
He performed better than this, but he also pledged to do well next season. "I will do my best so that the players can cheer for Lee Seung-yeop next season," he said. "LG Twins won the championship, but I will prepare well for Doosan to win the championship (next year)."