Padres' infielder Kim Ha-seong named finalist for NL Gold Glove at 2 positions
San Diego Padres third baseman Kim Ha-Seong throws out San Francisco Giants' Patrick Bailey at first base during the second inning of a baseball game in San Francisco, Sept. 25. AP-Yonhap
The San Diego Padres' Korean infielder Kim Ha-seong has been named a finalist at two positions for the National League (NL) Gold Glove Award.
Major League Baseball (MLB) announced the finalists for the top fielding award at each position Wednesday (U.S. local time). Kim is one of three finalists in both the second base and utility categories.
Kim is trying to become the first Korean player to win a Gold Glove. Last year, he was a finalist at the shortstop position.
After the Padres signed a big-ticket free agent shortstop, Xander Bogaerts, over the offseason, Kim became a primary second baseman and still thrived at his new position.
Kim was among the league leaders in Outs Above Average (OAA), which measures how many outs a player has saved based on the difficulty of plays. He accumulated +7 OAA as a second baseman to tie for sixth in the NL and had +10 OAA overall.
Per Baseball Reference, Kim ranked seventh overall in the NL with a 2.1 in defensive wins above replacement (WAR).
Kim will be up against Nico Hoerner of the Chicago Cubs and Bryson Stott of the Philadelphia Phillies.
MLB added the utility category last year, recognizing players with defensive versatility.
Kim Ha-Seong looks on during a game against the St. Louis Cardinals at PETCO Park in San Diego, California, Sept. 23. AFP-Yonhap
In the NL utility position, Kim will vie for the award with Mookie Betts of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Tommy Edman of the St. Louis Cardinals, a half-Korean player who was Kim's double play partner at the World Baseball Classic in March. Edman is the 2021 NL Gold Glove winner at second base, while Betts has won six Gold Gloves in right field.
Kim logged 106 games at second base, 32 at third base and 20 at shortstop.
The Gold Glove winners are determined by votes from 30 MLB managers and up to six coaches from each team. They will vote from a pool of players in their league but not those from their own team. These votes comprise 75 percent of the selection total, with the Defensive Index by the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR) counting for the other 25 percent.
Kim is only the second Korean to even be a finalist for a Gold Glove, following Choo Shin-soo, who was up for the American League Gold Glove in right field in 2012. (Yonhap)