Kun-woo Park (01)

Kun-woo Park (박건우)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 176 lb.

• High School Seoul High School

• Born September 8, 1990 in Seoul South Korea

BR register page

Biographical Information

Kun-woo Park has played in the Korea Baseball Organization and for the South Korean national team.

Park was the second pick of the Doosan Bears in the 2009 KBO draft, following Kyoung-min Hur ; they would both be key elements of the Bears' dynasty of 2015-2020. He was 1 for 5 with a run in the 2009 KBO then was on the police baseball team to fulfill his military service.

He returned to the Bears in 2013, backing up Hyun-soo Kim in LF, Jong-wook Lee in CF and Byung-hun Min in RF. He hit .271/.300/.354 in 51 plate appearances. In 2014, he fell to .180/.231/.279 in 66 plate appearances. He was a solid bench player in 2015 (.342/.399/.513 in 70 G, 175 PA). He played regularly in right when Doosan won the 2015 Korean Series.

Park was a regular by 2016, splitting LF with Jae-hwan Kim and RF with Min. He batted .335/.390/.550 with 36 doubles, 20 triples and 95 runs. He was 10th in the league in average (between Jae-gyun Hwang and Jong-wook Ko) and tied Luis Jimenez for 7th in two-baggers. Doosan swept the 2016 Korean Series. Park was a bench player for South Korea in the 2017 World Baseball Classic.

The Seoul native had a huge year in 2017: .366/.424/.582, 40 2B, 20 HR, 20 SB (3 CS), 91 R. He fielded .983 in center field. He was among the KBO leaders in doubles (2nd, 2 behind Sung-bum Na), hits (177, 6th), steals (tied Kyung-min Na for 5th), OBP (6th, between Yong-taik Park and Ah-seop Son), slugging (6th, between Sung-bum Na and Hyoung-woo Choi), OPS (5th, between Choi and Sung-bum Na) and batting average (2nd, .004 behind Sung-bum Na). He was not named one of the KBO's top three outfielders as Sung-bum Na, Choi and Roger Bernadina got the nods. In the 2017 Korean Series, he had three hits in the Bears' opening win but they dropped the next four games.

In 2018, he fell to .324/.373/.473 with 24 doubles and 12 homers. He did tie for third in the league with six triples. The Bears lost the 2018 Korean Series to the SK Wyverns. He was down to ten dingers in 2019 and hit .319/.397/.465 while moving from CF to RF. He was 8th in the league in average (between Mel Rojas Jr. and Han-joon Yoo) and tied for 10th with five triples. In the 2019 Korean Series, he scored the winning run in the 9th inning of the opener against the Kiwoom Heroes, reaching on an error by Ha-seong Kim and scoring on a Jae-il Oh hit. In Game 2, he singled off Hyun-hee Han to score Ji-hyuk Ryu with another game-winner. The Bears pulled off a sweep; Jae-il Oh was named Series MVP.

Park backed up Jung-hoo Lee in center for South Korea when they finished second in the 2019 Premier 12. He went 1-for-5 with a run, his only hit coming off Takayuki Kishi of champion Japan. South Korea won a spot in the 2020 Olympics but the Games were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He hit .304/.369/.472 with 40 doubles and 103 runs in the 2020 KBO (fielding .991 in right), finishing among the leaders in doubles (tied Preston Tucker for 4th), runs (6th, between José Miguel Fernandez and Tucker) and hit-by-pitch (12, tied for 9th). Doosan made the Korean Series again, but fell in the 2020 Korean Series to the kt Wiz.