BRIMMING WITH CONFIDENCE
South Korea’s Kim eyes Rookie of the Year and World Series title this season
“The main reason I joined the Padres ... the Padres will become a World Series champion this year. I want to be part of a winning team.”
Ha-Seong Kim • On why he chose San Diego
Ha-Seong Kim has his sights set on the NL Rookie of the Year award. The 25year-old South Korean grew up on the left side of the infield but says he will play anywhere on a Padres team with lofty aspirations.
His are just as high as he prepares to jump from the KBO to the majors.
“The main reason I joined the Padres,” Kim said through interpreter SK Jhung, “is the Padres are not only a contender, but the Padres will become a World Series champion this year. I want to be part of a winning team. That’s why I joined the Padres.”
Indeed, Kim was brimming with confidence as he introduced himself to San Diego via a Tuesday evening videoconference call from South Korea with more participants — as many as 52 — than either of last week’s sessions with fellow newcomers Blake Snell and Yu Darvish.
That’s not unexpected. A two-time KBO Gold Glover who mashed a career-high 30 homers in 2020, Kim was his country’s top prospect heading into the winter. The Padres lured him to San Diego with a four-year, $28 million deal — not including the $5.525 million release fee owed to his KBO club — despite an infield already occupied by Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., Eric Hosmer and Jake Cronenworth, the runner-up in last year’s NL Rookie of the Year voting.
Kim referenced all four in an opening statement that began in English:
“Hello everyone. I am HaSeong Kim of the San Diego Padres. Nice to meet you all.”
Kim continued in Korean: “It’s truly my honor to join the San Diego Padres, the Major League’s best baseball team with tremendous firepower and excellent pitching. I’m very excited to be part of a team with such great talent as Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis, Jake Cronenworth and Eric Hosmer. As a new addition to the team, I too will grow as a player as well as contribute significantly to the team.”
While Kim said he expects second base to be his primary position, how exactly he fits in remains to be seen.
Machado and Hosmer are locked on the corners and Tatis has been groomed as the Padres’ elusive long-term answer at shortstop. While Cronenworth ultimately won the second base job in 2020, his production lagged in the second half of the season, potentially opening up a spot in the infield for Kim. Of course, both Kim and Cronenworth could see time in the outfield as the Padres draw up plans to move from a COVID-19shortened season back to a fulllength campaign.
“It’s also about going from 60 games to 162 games,” Padres General Manager A.J. Preller said. “Last year was a sprint. This year is truly a marathon. We’re going to keep our players fresh. We’re going to keep them in the infield. As we get into spring training, we’ll start looking at the versatility and … maybe some of those guys grabbing an outfield glove.”
Kim arrives as the first Korean-born position player in Padres history, although he’s hardly their first attempt to pull in talent from the Pacific Rim pipeline.
They infamously won the rights to negotiate with Hideki Irabu’s Japanese team in the winter of 1997 only to have Irabu force a trade to the Yankees.
Chan Ho Park of South Korea pitched two seasons in San
Diego in the latter stages of his career, Japanese reliever Akinori Otsuka started his bigleague career in the Padres’ bullpen and Japanese infielder Tadahito Iguchi jumped to San Diego after beginning his U.S. career with the White Sox.
More recently, the Padres signed Japanese submariner Kazuhisa Makita to a two-year deal heading into the 2018 season, their first big-league transaction after doubling down on their commitment to the region under Preller.
Those efforts included hiring Acey Kohrogi — who, with former Dodgers scouting director Logan White, helped bring several notable players from Asia to the Dodgers — as their Pacific Rim operations director. Hideo Nomo was also brought in as a
baseball operations adviser, as was Park, who played a significant role in courting Kim the last few years and more recently on Zoom calls. Former Dodgers closer Takashi Saito also spent time in the Padres’ front office and Otsuka coached in the farm system.
“Chan Ho Park is obviously a ballplayer who I respect greatly,” Kim said. “… He told me about their lineup, their contention for the World Series this year. He also gave me a lot of advice in having confidence in playing in the U.S. for the first time.”
It all helped the Padres keep a foot in the door in previous pursuits in the Pacific Rim, most notably with Shohei Ohtani, until finally landing a big fish this offseason:
Kim, a 2018 and 2019 KBO Gold Glove shortstop who hit a career-high 30 homers in 2020, swiped 23 bases and penned a .306/.397/.523 batting line for the Kiwoom Heroes.
“Really, the last few years we think we’ve had a good feel for the players that have come over from the KBO or the NBP,” Preller said. “… We’ve been able to identify players that can come over and be successful, and they’ve been pretty successful. I think that same (Pacific Rim scouting) group recommended Ha-Seong and because of the experience of that group we feel that with this abilities he’s going to come over here and do very, very well.”
Those abilities, the Padres believe, include having the arm strength to handle shortstop as needed and the bat speed to catch up with big-league velocity, something of a chore for many Pacific Rim position players jumping to the majors.
“Good players have a way of making adjustments,” Preller said. “... We’ve seen him dating back to the 18-under world championship team and seeing his progression in the KBO. One thing that gives us a lot of faith is watching his adjustments since his first year in the KBO … to see his progression to where last year he walked 75 times and punched out 68.
“The more he sees, the better he’s going to get.”