Seoul: The pitching Triple Crown winner and the league home run leader were among nominees for the South Korean baseball MVP award announced Sunday. The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) released a list of 18 nominees for its regular-season MVP award, along with eight nominees for the Rookie of the Year award. The KBO will also give out the Manager of the Year award for the first time, with all 10 managers, including two interim skippers, automatically being nominated for the honor.

According to Yonhap News Agency, for the MVP award, league leaders in major pitching and hitting categories were automatically nominated, along with others who put up strong numbers. It is widely regarded as a two-horse race between Hanwha Eagles starting pitcher Cody Ponce and Samsung Lions first baseman Lewin Diaz.

Ponce, in his first KBO season, won the Triple Crown by leading the league with 17 wins, a 1.89 ERA, and a KBO-record 252 strikeouts. He also set a record for the most consecutive wins by a pitcher from the start of a season with 17, and lost just once all season for a league-best winning percentage of .944. With Ponce leading the rotation, the Eagles finished second in the regular season with a win-loss-tie record of 83-57-4 and booked their first trip to the postseason since 2018.

Diaz was the most dominant hitter this season, as he led the league with 50 home runs — the most ever by a foreign player in the KBO — and set the single-season record with 158 RBIs. Diaz also had the league’s highest slugging percentage with .644 and the highest on-base plus slugging (OPS) with 1.025. Diaz played all 144 games as he helped the Lions reach the postseason for the second consecutive year.

For the top rookie prize, players who entered the KBO this year or those who had joined the league within the past five years and not accumulated 30 innings pitched or 60 plate appearances were eligible. KT Wiz outfielder Ahn Hyun-min is considered the heavy favorite for the award. He led all rookies with 22 home runs and 80 RBIs, while ranking first overall in on-base percentage (.448), second in batting average (.334) and OPS (1.018), and third in slugging percentage (.570). Ahn was one of three players to finish with at least a .300 batting average, a .400 on-base percentage, and a .500 slugging percentage.

Members of the Korea Baseball Writers Association will vote on the awards starting Sunday.