The Golden Glove is awarded to 10 main characters in total, including pitchers, catchers, designated hitters, and first, second, third, shortstop, and outfielders (three).
Most of the winners of this Golden Glove were clear. Shortstop, on the other hand, was not the case. Shortstop was a fierce two-way race between Oh Ji-hwan and KIA Tigers Park Chan-ho.
Oh Ji-hwan has a batting average of 0.268 OPS (on-base plus slugging) of 0.767 with eight homers and 62 RBIs this season. Notably, he served as the captain of LG this season, contributing to the team’s overall win for the first time in 29 years. In the Korean Series, Oh won the MVP of the Korean Series with a batting average of 0.316 three homers and eight RBIs, including three homers in three consecutive games.
Park Chan-ho was also not easy. Park hit .301 OPS 0.734 with three homers, 52 RBIs and 30 steals this season, achieving his first career average of .301.
The result was a close game. Oh won the Golden Glove for the second consecutive year following last year with 154 votes (52.9 percent) out of a total of 291 votes. In contrast, Park Chan-ho, who hit .300 for the first time in his career, received 120 votes (41.2 percent), narrowly missing his first Golden Glove by 34 votes.
In an interview after the award ceremony, Oh said, “There’s a reason why I wanted to receive a Golden Glove. To remember 2023 as the best year, I thought it would be nice to receive this kind of individual (golden glove). Of course, I thought that I was behind (Park) Chan-ho in the regular season. Still, I am very grateful to (Park) Chan-ho for competing with me,” expressing his gratitude to the competitor who was with me until the end.
Oh Ji-hwan continued, “I’ve been keeping this position for a long time, but now I have to show that young players are competitive as they hit and come up. I’ll aim for the (individual) award once again and prepare the team’s performance well to prepare for my own skills,” he said, expressing his determination for next season.
Meanwhile, Oh talked about the need for Lim Chan-kyu in an interview. “Chan-kyu (Im) did not start as a starting pitcher this season, but became a starting pitcher after going through various positions. He also put off the FA for a year and worked hard. As records tell us, he is a player that the team really needs.”
In particular, Oh Ji-hwan laughed by mentioning to LG’s general manager Cha Myung-seok, “I hope you can give me a lot of money and say ‘Just hit! The end!’ again.” 안전놀이터 추천
Regarding Park Dong-won’s joke that he would be scolded if he ran away, he said, “It seems to say that the team’s atmosphere is that good. (Park) Dong-won also said a lot that he wanted to do it together.”