Seoul: After spending the past several years in almost complete anonymity, KT Wiz outfielder Ahn Hyun-min emerged as one of the top young sluggers in South Korean baseball this year. It all culminated in the Rookie of the Year award for the 22-year-old.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Ahn was the no-brainer choice as the best rookie in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), after he led all eligible rookies with 22 home runs, 80 RBIs and a line of .334/.448/.570. He finished first overall in on-base percentage, second in batting average and third in slugging percentage. Ahn earned 110 out of 125 votes cast by baseball media.
Unlike many previous winners of this award, Ahn was not a "can't-miss" prospect destined for greatness from the moment he stepped into the box in the KBO. The Wiz selected him in the fourth round of the 2021 draft, and he spent the early part of his first professional season in 2022 in the Futures League, the KBO's minor league. Ahn began his mandatory military service later that year and took an unconventional route by enlisting as an active serviceman, rather than signing up to join the military club in the Futures League, Sangmu, like many other ball players do.
Ahn finally made his KBO debut last year but was limited to just 16 games, with his season derailed by a broken left middle finger suffered in June. He spent most of the early part of this season in the Futures League and appeared in only two games in the KBO through April.
Ahn started getting more opportunity in May, and he ran with it. He batted .333 with nine homers and 29 RBIs in May, and followed that up with a .346 average in June. Ahn was voted the Player of the Month for July after batting .441 with five home runs and 14 RBIs. He drew 17 walks and struck out just six times in 21 games that month.
Ahn brought a rare combination of power, contact and on-base skills. For the season, he drew 75 walks to rank fourth in the league and struck out only 72 times. Of 13 players who had 20 or more home runs this year, Ahn was the only player who had more walks than strikeouts.
His gaudy numbers allowed him to reach the top of the leaderboard in advanced metrics, too. He accumulated wins above replacement of 7.22, and his weighted runs created plus (wRC+), an all-encompassing stat that measures a player's total offensive value, came to 172.5. A 100 wRC+ is the league average, and every point above or below 100 represents one percentage point better or worse than the average. Even though Ahn only played 112 games this year, he was still 72.5 percent better than the KBO average in his offensive contribution.
After the KBO season, Ahn also had a productive run with the national team, belting two home runs against Japan at Tokyo Dome in two exhibition games. Citing wRC+ as an important measuring stick, national team manager Ryu Ji-hyun said Ahn would be his No. 2 hitter, given his power and ability to get on base to set the table for the middle of the lineup.
Ahn is also the rare homegrown, right-handed slugger in a league full of left-handed power hitters, someone who oozes with potential to dominate the competition for years to come.