KBO Golden Glove winner Kim Do-yeong wants to keep collecting trophies

After enjoying a banner year on the field, Kia Tigers superstar Kim Do-yeong has been as busy as a baseball player could get off the field in recent weeks.

First, he collected his regular-season MVP trophy at the annual Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) Awards ceremony in late November. It kicked off a series of other awards ceremonies, hosted by sports newspapers, KBO players’ association and its retired players’ association, among others, and Kim swooped up “Player of the Year” awards left and right.

The hectic awards season ended Friday evening at the annual Golden Glove ceremony in Seoul. As expected, Kim was the runway winner, earning 280 out of 288 votes cast by media members for his first Golden Glove.

Kim had 38 homers and 40 steals this year while batting a robust .347/.420/.647 and setting a league record with 143 runs scored. Kim also helped the Tigers to their 12th Korean Series title.

“I am really happy and also relieved,” Kim said afterward. “I wonder if moments like this will come to me again. And I hope I didn’t just have the best season of my career. I want to keep getting better and keep working hard for that. I believe I can be even better next year than this year. And I want to keep attending these award ceremonies.”

Asked to compare the MVP award and the Golden Glove award, Kim said, “I suppose the MVP trophy means more, but I want to be a consistent winner of the Golden Glove. I’d love to keep winning this for the rest of my career.”

Asked if he was disappointed to come up short of becoming the first unanimous Golden Glove winner, Kim said, “Not at all. I am just happy to have won this.”

Prior to Friday’s ceremony, Kim said he couldn’t wait to get back to work, having spent most of the past several weeks attending ceremonies and receiving congratulations,

“I’ve had so much time off, and I will try to make up for all the lost time now,” Kim said. “I will try to add more muscle. I have a great trainer by my side and all I have to do is just to show up at the gym.”

Kim debuted in 2022 and broke out in Year 3 in his age-20 season. He said he will try to take the positives from this year and work around the edges for the new season.

“I think having a consistent routine is more important than batting techniques,” Kim added. “Whenever I played in big games, I felt my mindset played a bigger role than any mechanics. I think my form at the plate will be the same.”

While Kim did a ton of damage with his bat, he led the KBO with 30 errors. Reiterating his goal for 2025, Kim said Friday he will continue to work on his defense.

“I will double down on some of the drills that I did this year,” he added. “I will be getting a lot of help from people around me on defense.”

With the Golden Glove in his hands, Kim said he won’t set any statistical targets for 2025.

“I want to stay on the field consistently and not suffer injuries,” Kim said. “If I can have similar numbers as this year and help the team win another title, then it will be as good as it gets.”