Seoul: Lewin Diaz of the Samsung Lions was named the top player in South Korean baseball for the final month of the regular season on Monday. The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) announced that Diaz beat out seven other candidates for the Player of the Month honor for the September-October period, marking him as the first foreign player for the Lions to receive this award.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Diaz earned 30 out of 35 votes cast by members of the Korea Baseball Writers Association, along with 286,323 votes out of 530,365 submitted online by fans. These totals converted to 69.85 voting points, while Austin Dean of the LG Twins finished second with 7.39 points.
During the final full month of the regular season and one game in October, Diaz led the KBO with 27 RBIs, an .838 slugging percentage, and a .500 on-base percentage. He also tied for second place with seven home runs and ranked third with 28 hits and a .412 batting average.
Diaz made history by setting the single-season RBI record with 158. He hit 50 home runs, becoming the first foreign player to achieve the half-century mark in homers in the KBO. Diaz will receive 3 million won (US$2,100) in prize money.