Will this be short stop ‘s era as the Pacific League shortstop? In the past, Imamiya won the award for five consecutive years, and Genda won it for seven consecutive years.
Baseball King
2025.11.12(水) 23:13
The winners of the 54th Mitsui Golden Glove Award, which recognizes professional baseball ‘s “defense masters,” were announced on the 12th, with Kotaro Kobayashi (Orix) winning the award for the first time in Pacific League short stop category.
Until now, speaking of the Pacific League short stop category, Sosuke Genda (Seibu) had won the award for seven consecutive years from 2018 to last season, tying him with Jo Ohashi for the most wins Pacific League. Among them, Kurebayashi managed to break Genda’s stronghold, which had reigned supreme for many years. Kurebayashi received 79 votes, while Genda received 74. Kurebayashi won by just five votes.
In the Pacific League short stop category, over the past 10 years, once a player has won the Golden Glove Award, that player has tended to continue winning it for a long time. Kenta Imamiya (Softbank) won the award for five consecutive years from 2013, and Genda won the Golden Glove Award for seven years from 2018 until last season.
This is Kurebayashi’s first time receiving the award. He commented through the team, “I was honestly surprised because I never thought I would be selected. At the same time, it’s an award I’ve always wanted to receive, so I’m really happy. I’ll continue to do my best defense to contribute to the team’s win, and I’ll keep working hard every day so that I can be selected for this award again.”
However, from next year onwards, he will have many rivals, including Genda, who missed out on the award this year, as well as Rui Muneyama (Rakuten) and Atsuki Tomosugi (Lotte). It will be interesting to see whether Kurebayashi can continue to win the Golden Glove Award he has won once.
AloJapan.com