KIM WILL BE THROWN INTO THE FIRE
Padres General Manager A.J. Preller believed in Haseong Kim enough to give him a $28 million deal this offseason despite already having Fernando Tatis Jr. at shortstop, Jake Cronenworth at second base and Jurickson Profar leaning toward a return to San Diego.
Tatis’ absence with a left shoulder injury, however long it lasts, provides the 25year-old Kim with a chance to perhaps find his footing, perhaps uninterrupted by the team’s initial plan to bounce him around the infield.
Padres manager Jayce Tingler inserted Kim into the lineup after Tatis’ exit on Monday and penciled him into Tuesday’s starting lineup at shortstop and in the seven-hole.
The right-handed-hitting Kim collected two hits — on 92 and 89 mph fastballs — in his first MLB start (at second base) on Saturday, but was 0-for-3 with two popups and a strikeout Monday. His night ended at the hands of Giants left-hander Jake McGee, who showed Kim fastballs above 95 mph for the first time in the regular season (Kim took one and swung through the other).
Kim hit 30 homers with a .306/.397/.523 batting line last year in Korea, although hitters in the KBO rarely see the kind of velocity that he can expect to see on a nightly basis in the majors, especially in the back of bullpens.
The catch-up for Kim began in spring training with batting practice against high-velocity machines and short-distance BP throwing. It will continue throughout his early work, but there’s no better teacher than experience.
And Kim could be about
to get a whole bunch of it.
“Probably the fastest way to learn is to practice it and then do it in a game,” Tingler said. “So the more game reps he has, the more times he’s seeing 95, 96 and 97 and up, I think that’s going to be the quickest lesson to make shorter moves, get your barrel to the ball a tick faster and all those things. I think you practice it, you game rep it and you kind of keep repeating that process over time.”
Dickerson back home
Alex Dickerson must have felt right at home on Monday at Petco Park, coming off the bench for a pinchhit opportunity in the sixth inning against Craig Stammen and finishing the game in left field.
The Poway High product
did that regularly while playing for the Padres from 2015 to 2019 and figured he’d enjoy visiting his old stomping grounds quite often after he was traded to the NL West-rival Giants in June 2019.
Only last September’s trip to San Diego was nothing but a headache when he was hoping to enjoy a weekend in San Diego with his wife, Jennifer, who was 39 weeks pregnant at the time.
Dickerson’s false positive COVID-19 test wiped away two games against the Padres. To top it off, a false USA Today report suggested that Dickerson had contracted the virus from a “family member or friend in San Diego,” sweeping him and his wife into an emotional weekend as they prepared to welcome their son, Levi, into
the world.
“I’d be lying if I didn’t say there was some PTSD as I was spitting into that tube (Monday),” Dickerson said. “They might screw this one up, too. That was a crazy awful time for my family. This year my wife isn’t even allowed in my (hotel) room for whatever reason.
“I’ve got one dose of the vaccine now. I’m really looking forward to the second one. Two weeks after that we get to loosen up restrictions hopefully.
“It’s a memory from my past that wasn’t great, but it’s kind of funny to talk about now because it was ridiculous.”
This, however, will be a good memory: Jennifer and a 6-month-old Levi will be watching from the stands at Petco Park this week.
Notable
Before the game, Kim and Jorge Mateo took ground balls as shortstops on the left side of the infield and Jake Cronenworth and Tucupita Marcano ran through drills as second basemen on the right side. All four have history at shortstop and could see time at the position during Tatis’ absence. With Tatis landing on the injured list, OF Brian O’Grady was activated Tuesday night.
• RHP Dinelson Lamet
threw a bullpen session Tuesday at Petco Park. Tingler said the next step is game action at the alternate site in Arizona, in two to four days. “He looked good,” Tingler said. “Most importantly he felt good coming out of it.”