Dinos captain going for 2nd straight defensive award

NC Dinos captain Park Min-woo speaks during a press conference at Changwon NC Park in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, Monday. Yonhap

NC Dinos second baseman and captain Park Min-woo has been among the best contact hitters in Korean baseball since his debut in 2013. With a lifetime batting average of .319, Park ranks third among all active players with at least 3,000 plate appearances.

For the upcoming season, though, Park wants to be recognized for more than his potent bat.

In 2025, Park batted .302, clearing the .300 mark for the third consecutive season and for the ninth time in his Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) career. He also won his first KBO Fielding Award at second base.

At the team's first meeting of the new year Monday, Park said he would love to repeat as the winner of the league's top defensive prize.

"After the last season ended, I tried to shed some weight and put myself in shape to be able to play a lot of games," Park said at Changwon NC Park in the southeastern city of Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province. "My goal this year is to win my second consecutive Fielding Award."

Park, 32, wasn't always known for his glove and was prone to botching simple plays earlier in his career. He has made significant strides in recent years to emerge as the top defensive second baseman in place of former Kiwoom Heroes star Kim Hye-seong, who earned the first two editions of the Fielding Award in 2023 and 2024 before signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

"I read an interview where my manager (Lee Ho-joon) said he was worried that I wouldn't be able to handle a heavy workload," said Park, who missed 27 games last year and 23 games in 2024 with injuries. "And that motivated me to work really hard this offseason. I want to be able to play more games this year."

This will be Park's second year as captain and also Lee's second year in charge. Park said the two have been on the same page since Day 1.

"We had great chemistry last year, and we will continue to follow his direction this year," Park said. "I heard he once cried in front of media during the postseason last year, and we want to make him shed more tears this year."

Park was referring to a media scrum before Game 2 of the wild card round against the Samsung Lions. The Dinos, despite a slew of injuries to key players, including Park, squeezed into the postseason with a nine-game winning streak at the end of the regular season and pushed the favored Lions to the brink before ultimately coming up short.

And before that second game, Lee spoke about how all the injured veterans wanted to get back into the lineup and sacrificed themselves for the team, but he couldn't bring himself to do so because he knew how badly they were hurting.

"It was such a dramatic turn of events that we were able to get into the postseason given the circumstances," Park said. "I think the manager became emotional over how dedicated we all were. This year, we don't want to stop in the wild card round and want to start our postseason journey at an even higher place."