Can Lewin Diaz Repeat His 50 Home Runs Feat in 2026? A Deep Dive into KBO’s Power Hitter

[MyDaily = Daegu reporter Kim Kyung-hyun] \”I’m going to leave last year’s numbers in the past,\” he said.

Lewin Díaz, last season’s home run king for the Samsung Lions, penned a comeback with a walk-off homer — and it came after he returned to the basics that made him dominant.

Díaz first arrived in the KBO in 2024 as the foreign midseason replacement for Rubén Cárdenas. He produced seven homers in 29 regular-season games and five more in nine postseason appearances, his postseason clutch hitting ultimately earning him a new contract.

He turned last year into a legend. Across 144 games he compiled 173 hits, 50 homers, 93 runs and 158 RBIs, batting .314 with a 1.014 OPS. He set two major marks: he passed Yamaiko Navarro’s 2014 total of 48 homers to become the single-season foreign player home run leader, and he topped Park Byung-ho’s 2015 RBI mark (146) to claim the single-season RBI record. No player in KBO history had ever combined 50 homers with 150 RBIs in a season until Díaz did it.

Expectations were sky-high for Díaz this season, but he didn’t show the same power early on. He continued to find hits, but the long balls were scarce, and he went quiet in run-scoring spots more often than fans expected. With those expectations came criticism.

Manager Park Jin-man pushed for a response and held a one-on-one, just as he had last season. Park told Díaz, \”Everyone believes in you — don’t let the pressure get to you. Play with confidence.\” Díaz said that conversation helped relieve some of the stress he was feeling.

Whatever the reason, Díaz delivered a performance that brought last season to mind. He started at cleanup and first base on May 3 in Daegu against the Hanwha Eagles. The game stayed tight all night: every time Hanwha scratched across runs against starter Heo In-seo, Samsung answered back.

Trailing 4-6 in the bottom of the ninth, leadoff hitter Kim Ji-chan singled and Choi Hyung-woo followed with another hit. Choi’s knock was his 2,623rd career hit, moving him past Son Ah-seop (Doosan Bears, 2,622) to become the KBO’s all-time leader. With no outs and runners on first and second, Díaz stepped in and hammered Cushing’s third-pitch sweeper over the right-field wall for a three-run walk-off homer. It was his fifth of the season and his third career walk-off.

After the game Díaz said, \”We played well on both offense and defense. We focused on one game at a time, and that approach paid off. It was a back-and-forth game, but finishing with that comeback feels great. I haven’t been playing well for a few weeks, but the fans kept cheering, and I’m always grateful. I’ll work even harder.\”

Asked about the walk-off moment, Díaz admitted, \”When I went up to the plate I thought, ‘What if I hit a home run here and end it?’ My timing had been up and down, so I focused on getting that right for the final at-bat.\”

The sequence mirrored last season in an uncanny way. In mid-April last year Díaz’s average fell into the .100s before he found a turning point and morphed into a 50-homer force. This year, after a short dip, he flipped the script with a walk-off blast.

\”I hope it goes like last year,\” Díaz said. \”Last year’s slow start was worse than this one, so I try not to make it a big deal. I want to play without dwelling on last season. I’ll leave those numbers in the past and focus on staying healthy this year.\”

About 24,000 fans watched Díaz refocus and deliver. It was the team’s 10th sellout of the season. Can this moment kick-start another monster campaign?

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