Yang Eui-ji wearing the 9th time after returning to his parents' home
The new national team's No. 4 hitter Noh Si-hwan (Hanwha Eagles) ended a fantastic year with his first career "Golden Gloves." Yang Eui-ji (Doosan Bears) was named the most winner of all time in the catcher category, and NC Dinos' Park Kun-woo won his first honor in his 15th year as a professional.
Noh Si-hwan was selected as the final winner in the third base category at the 2023 KBO Golden Glove Awards held at COEX Auditorium in Gangnam-gu, Seoul on the 11th. He won two gold medals with 31 home runs and 101 RBIs in the regular season, winning 245 votes (84.2%) out of 291 votes, comfortably beating Moon Bo-kyung (LG Twins, 22 votes) and Choi Jeong (SSG Landers, 16 votes).
Appearing at the ceremony with a bright look on his face, he gave credit to Choi Jung, the senior who competed for the title until the end of the season. "It was a great experience just to compete with Choi Jung, who I always looked up to," Noh said. "I will try to surpass eight (the number of wins by Choi Jeong)."
Yang Eui-ji, who played his first season since returning to his parents' home, healed the pain of premature elimination from the fall baseball league with his ninth Golden Glove in his career. He ranked second in the number of wins following manager Lee Seung-yeop (10 times). If limited to catcher, he became the winner with eight, surpassing Kim Dong-soo (7 times).
Veteran outfielder Park Kun-woo has risen to the podium for the first time in 15 years since his debut. He has a batting average of 0.326 overall, but he has never had anything to do with the Golden Glove. In 2017, when his career hit high, he suffered a setback despite his best performance in the league. "It took too long for me to win this award," Park said with a smile. "I will spend the rest of my baseball life for my parents."
The player who garnered the most votes was Austin Dean, a lucky foreign player of LG. He garnered an overwhelming 93.1 percent of the votes to be selected as the league's top first baseman. Eric Peddy of NC, who was raised as a possibility to win the award unanimously in the pitching category, followed with 91.8 percent. Park Chan-ho of Kia Tigers garnered 41.2 percent of the votes in the shortstop category, the biggest battleground, but failed to win the award, falling behind Oh Ji-hwan (52.9 percent).
LG Electronics, which won the title for the first time in 29 years, has produced a total of three winners including Austin and Oh Ji-hwan and Hong Chang-ki. It had the largest number of Golden Glovers along with NC Dinos where Pedi, Park Gun-woo and Son Ah-seop laughed. Kiwoom Heroes' Kim Hye-sung won the second baseman prize and the fair play prize.
The final winner was not unexpected, but voting behavior that was beyond common sense was repeated again this year. Despite clear differences in performance, six out of seven candidates in the catcher category and eight candidates in the shortstop category earned votes. Some even cast ballots for candidates whose contribution to victory (WAR) compared to substitutes does not exceed 1.