Hanwha Eagles starter Cody Ponce pitches against the Kia Tigers during a Korea Baseball Organization regular-season game at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field in Gwangju, 270 kilometers south of Seoul, on May 4, 2025. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, May 8 (Korea Bizwire) — Hanwha Eagles starter Cody Ponce was named the top player in South Korean baseball for the first month of the season on Thursday.
The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) announced the American right-hander as the winner of the Player of the Month award for the March-April period. The season began on March 22.
Ponce collected 25 out of 35 votes cast by the media to lead eight candidates. Ponce finished fourth in fan voting with 38,934 out of 311,318, but still earned 41.97 total votes to beat Lotte Giants infielder Jeon Min-jae (21.55 points) for the honor.
Ponce, a former big league pitcher, was dominant in his first seven starts in the KBO in the March-April period, going 5-0 with a 1.96 ERA and striking out a league-best 61 strikeouts in 46 innings. Ponce ranked second in the KBO in wins and innings during this span, and the Eagles won six out of Ponce’s seven starts.
Ponce is the first foreign pitcher for the Eagles to win the top monthly prize. He will receive 3 million won (US$2,150) in prize money and a trophy.
Jeon, who ranked second overall with a .387 batting average and fourth with 36 hits, led all candidates with 116,390 votes from fans but only had two votes from the media.
(Yonhap)
