The Kiwoom Heroes of the Korea Baseball Organization League officially posted infielder Hye-seong Kim on Wednesday, according to MLB.com. Major League Baseball teams will now have 30 days, or until Jan. 3, to reach an agreement with Kim, whose age (26 come January) and service time (eight professional seasons) will enable him to avoid the amateur free-agent designation suppressing the earning potential of Japanese right-hander Roki Sasaki.
Kim wraps up his KBO career having hit .304/.364/.403 with 37 home runs and 211 stolen bases. He established a new single-season best by homering 11 times this past year. He’s also a multi-time KBO Golden Glove Award recipient.
Kim will become the second notable South Korean hitter to transfer to MLB in the last two offseasons. It was about a year ago that the San Francisco Giants signed outfielder Jung Hoo Lee to a six-year pact worth $113 million. While it seems unlikely that Kim will receive a similar fortune, the Heroes will receive a fee based on his contract’s value:
- Contract worth less than $25 million: 20% of contract value
- Contract worth $25 million to $50 million: $5 million plus 17.5% of amount over $25 million
- Contract worth more than $50 million: $9.275 million plus 15% of amount over $50 million
Below, CBS Sports has compiled four other things worth knowing about Kim.
1. Known quantity
MLB front offices are familiar with Kim for various reasons, including the passive exposure he gained by being teammates on the Heroes with a few current MLB players.
In addition to sharing a clubhouse with the aforementioned Jung Hoo Lee, Kim also shared a middle infield with free-agent shortstop Ha-Seong Kim. Indeed, the Heroes fielded those three in regular roles from 2017-20, at which point Ha-Seong Kim made his way to the United States to play with the San Diego Padres.
Ha-Seong Kim has since averaged 4.6 Wins Above Replacement per 162 games in MLB; Lee, for his part, was on pace to deliver 0.6 WAR before suffering a dislocated shoulder that required season-ending surgery in what served as his 37th game in MLB.
Just how might Hye-seong Kim fare?
2. Skilled defender, baserunner
Kim is a talented glovesman with plenty of experience on both sides of the second base bag. He primarily played the keystone out of deference to Ha-Seong Kim early in his career. He then moved to the six for the 2021 season. Kim has since returned to second base on a most-days basis — that despite the Heroes having an unsettled state at short. It stands to reason that an MLB squad could have him see action at each spot as needed.
In addition to Kim providing value on defense, he’s likely to serve as an asset on the basepaths. He’s swiped at least 25 bases in each of the past five seasons, and for his career he’s succeeded on 85% of his stolen-base attempts.
There’s secondary value to be gleaned here. But what about Kim’s bat?
3. Concerns about offensive ceiling
This is where evaluators have questions about how Kim’s game will port to MLB.
As we noted in the introduction, Kim batted .304/.364/.403 with 37 home runs for his KBO career. He showed improved bat-to-ball skills along the way, reducing his strikeout rate all the way to below 11% of his plate appearances in 2024.
Still, Kim’s power indicators are not encouraging — not when contextualized against his past teammates. Consider that Kim’s career .099 ISO is significantly worse than the figures put up by Lee (.151 ISO) and Ha-Seong Kim (.199). Kim’s ISO is unlikely to transfer on a one-to-one basis with him. Lee had a .069 ISO in a relatively small sample in MLB before going down with injury; Ha-Seong Kim, conversely, has a MLB career .137 ISO.
Any kind of slugging decay would put Kim near the bottom of the barrel among MLB hitters. To wit, only three qualified MLB players finished last year with ISO under .080: Jacob Young, Sal Frelick, and Luis Arraez. Both Young and Frelick produced about 15% below the average offensive line, while Arraez remains the modern hit-tool king.
It’s possible, then, that Kim’s bat simply plays too lightly for him to be an everyday player. With that in mind, which teams would make sense for him?
4. Potential landing spots
Pretty much any team with a need on the infield could inquire on Kim’s services. That group includes the Seattle Mariners, San Diego Padres (who, coincidentally, stand to lose Ha-Seong Kim to free agency), and San Francisco Giants. The Los Angeles Dodgers wouldn’t appear as likely, but we will note that manager Dave Roberts acknowledged that the organization’s scouts liked Kim back in spring training.
