Slugging catcher voted KBO′s top player for May

▲ Park Dong-won of the LG Twins rounds the first base bag after hitting a single against the Lotte Giants during the bottom of the fourth inning of a Korea Baseball Organization regular season game at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on June 1, 2023. (Yonhap)
▲ Park Dong-won of the LG Twins hits a two-run single against the Lotte Giants during the bottom of the first inning of a Korea Baseball Organization regular season game at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on June 1, 2023. (Yonhap)

baseball player-award

Slugging catcher voted KBO's top player for May

By Yoo Jee-ho

SEOUL, June 8 (Yonhap) -- LG Twins catcher Park Dong-won has been voted the top player in South Korean baseball for May, on the strength of his remarkable power surge.

The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) announced Thursday that Park led the fan and media voting for the Player of the Month honor. He collected 16 out of 29 votes from the media and 178,638 out of 431,790 online votes cast by fans, for the combined voting points of 48.27.

In May, Park led the KBO with nine home runs, 25 RBIs and a .787 slugging percentage in 23 games. He tied for second with 14 runs scored and ranked fourth with a .333 batting average.

Park is the first Twin to win the monthly award in four years.

Through Wednesday, Park was leading the KBO with 14 home runs for the season. He is trying to become the first catcher in 19 years to top the league in home runs.

Park beat out his teammate, right-hander Im Chan-kyu, for the prize. Im finished with 15.32 voting points, after going 4-0 and posting a league-best 1.13 ERA in four starts last month.

Behind the two players' excellent performance on the mound and at the plate, the Twins posted the league's best record in May at 16-6-1 (wins-losses-ties).

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