No Korean big leaguer was listed among the 100 best players in the US Major League for the 2023 season selected by ESPN, an American sports media outlet.
On the 24th (Korean time), ahead of the opening week of the 2023 Major League Baseball regular season, ‘ESPN’ announced the top 100 player rankings through a vote of experts such as reporters and analysts in charge.
The first place was Ohtani Shohei (LA Angels), who is continuing the ‘double sword’ syndrome. After writing the history of double-digit home runs and victories in a single season 104 years after Babe Ruth last year, Ohtani recently led Japan to win the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC) and established himself as a true baseball icon.
Ohtani is preparing to start the regular season opener against Oakland on the 31st with the energy of winning the WBC and MVP. Last year, as a pitcher, he was 15-9 with an ERA of 2.33 and a batting average of 0.273, 34 homers, 95 RBIs, and an OPS of 0.875. see.
‘ESPN’ praised Ohtani, saying, “Ohtani is the best starting pitcher and the most feared hitter. It has become clearer in the WBC that he is the world’s best baseball player.”
In second place was Ohtani’s teammate Mike Trout. Trout hit 40 homers in a single season for the second time in his career last year, leading the Angels’ center lineup with Ohtani. 먹튀검증
Aaron Judge (New York Yankees), who broke the record for the most home runs in the American League last year, took the third place. Judge hit 62 homers in the 2022 season and signed a 9-year contract with the Yankees for a total of 360 million dollars (approximately 465.1 billion won).
Kim Ha-seong (San Diego Padres)’s teammate Manny Machado took 4th place, followed by Freddie Freeman (LA Dodgers) in 5th place. Japanese veteran pitcher Yu Darvish (San Diego) ranked 80th.