San Diego’s Kim Hae-Sung ranked No. 5 in NL in MVP voting by ESPN
Ha-Sung Kim, 27, of the San Diego Padres, is ranked fifth in ESPN’s midseason rankings for the National League (NL) MVP of Major League Baseball’s 2023 season.
ESPN released its midseason rankings for this year’s Major League Baseball MVP race today (Sept. 19), using its proprietary ranking program AXE (Award Index).
Kim Ha-Sung ranks fifth in the NL MVP race with 133.8 points.
Only Ronald Acuña Jr. (147.1 points, Atlanta Braves), Mookie Betts (145.7 points), Prairie Freeman (143.9 points, Los Angeles Dodgers), and Matt Olson (133.9 points, Atlanta) are higher than Kim, who is one of the NL’s biggest stars.
Through 18 games, Kim has played in 117 games, batting .281 with 15 home runs, 42 RBIs, 27 doubles, and an OPS of 0.813.
Considered “San Diego’s best player of the year” in the first half of the year, Kim emerged as a “National League star” in the second half, batting .333 with a .931 OPS.
To be fair, Kim’s chances of winning the NL MVP are slim.
But it’s significant that his name is consistently mentioned in MVP mock polls and midseason tabulations.
On August 9, Kim received votes in MLB.com’s MVP mock poll.
If he keeps up the momentum, he could become the highest-ranked Korean player in Major League Baseball MVP voting.
Only two other players have ever received votes in the MLB MVP voting: Shin-soo Choo (now with SSG Rangers) and Hyun-jin Ryu (Toronto Blue Jays).
Shin-Soo Choo finished 14th in the American League (AL) MVP voting with nine points (one sixth-place vote, one ninth-place vote, and two 10th-place votes) while playing for the Cleveland Indians in 2010, and 12th in the NL MVP voting with 23 points (one sixth-place vote, one seventh-place vote, one eighth-place vote, four ninth-place votes, 카지노사이트넷 and three 10th-place votes) while playing for the Cincinnati Reds in 2013.
Ryu finished 19th in the NL in 2019 with 3 points on 1 8th place vote.
Kim’s MVP voting position is expected to be higher than Shin-Soo Choo’s 12th place finish.
