With the end of the regular series, the Dominican Republic Winter Baseball League (LIDOM) continued to announce the awards for the 2020 winter ball season. The winners of the awards for Most Valuable Player, Pitcher of the Year, Rookie of the Year and Manager of the Year are selected by members of the Dominican sports press, based on the performance of the nominated players.
The leader of the year was Colombian Luis “Pipe” Urueta, who won the award for the first time in his career within LIDOM with 81.3 percent of the vote. Urueta led the Gigantes del Cibao to win the regular series, finishing first in the standings with a record of 16 wins and 14 losses. The Colombian navigated complicated situations such as a COVID-19 outbreak and the inactivity of his team for more than 10 days as a result. From last place in the middle of the championship, he led his team a historic climb to qualifying.
Shortstop for the Eastern Stars, Jeremy Peña was named Rookie of the Year with 76.3 percent of the vote. He finished as leader in triples (2) and as co-leader in games played (30) in the league for the 2020 season. He had 129 at bats including 121 official at-bats. He had 37 hits (three of them home runs) for a .306 batting average, a .349 on-base percentage (OBP) and a .430 slugging percentage (SLG), good for a .779 OPS. He drove eight points and scored 18 times. He stole six bases in six attempts, struckout 23 batters and negotiated seven transfers.
David Kubiak, the Escogido’s Lions starter, was selected as Pitcher of the Year of the 2020 season. The American culminated as the leader in strikeouts (32), in ERA (1.74) and in starts (seven) for LIDOM. He worked 36.1 innings in which he gave up ten runs, seven of which were earned. His average walks and basehits per inning pitched (WHIP) remained one of the best of the year with 0.83 and his defensive independent pitching (FIP) stat was 3.41. He won a match and was not beaten. He received the award with 41.9 percent of the vote.
With 48.1 percent of the vote, LIDOM’s 2020 season MVP award will go to Gigantes del Cibao, first baseman Ronald Guzmán, who was by far the best player of the season. In what was the best year of his career in Dominican baseball, Guzmán finished ahead in runs scored (25), hits (40), total bases (58), OBP (.454), OPS (.977), appearances on the plate (130) and as a co-leader in games played (30).
His batting average was .360, thanks to 40 hits in 111 official at-bats and his SLG of .523. He drove in 12 runs, hit 23 times and had 17 runs.