![\"\"](\"http:\/\/totfc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/HSkim_bad.jpg\")
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BaseballWRLD<\/a>: Braves\u2019 shortstop Kim Ha-Seong is statistically basically having the worst baseball season in history<\/span><\/p>\n I really hate that it\u2019s a Korean player, on the Atlanta Braves, that is having this unfortunate distinction, but the proof is in the pudding and the numbers don\u2019t lie.\u00a0 I know that all over the internet, there are couch statisticians and homers who are going to cry that ~85 plate appearances is too small a sample to make this kind of judgment, but those individuals probably aren\u2019t really seeing the bigger picture, nor have they actually watched any Braves games in which Kim has actually been in this season.<\/span><\/p>\n Man has been the very definition of a free agent flop, and one more thing that sucks about this whole thing is that this is the kind of free agent signing example that will further make the Atlanta Braves corporation even more gun-shy and risk-averse skittish about free agent signings in the future, than they already are.\u00a0 One-year pacts are pretty low-risk as they come, albeit at high price tags, but considering the return on investment Kim has provided, or didn\u2019t, the $20M he is making in the 2026 season has been particularly brutal.<\/span><\/p>\n Like with most Korean players in MLB, I supported Kim and have been such, even when he signed with San Diego and was playing out there.\u00a0 I was proud of the guy when he was putting up 5+ bWAR seasons for the Padres, with him being so good in 2023 he was even notching some low-end MVP votes and a Gold Glove.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Injuries derailed his time in San Diego, and he was shipped off to Tampa Bay where he couldn\u2019t ever get back on track, and I was really excited when the Rays made him available and the Braves being the Braves did the Braves-iest thing and managed to buy low on him, picking him up at the waiver-deadline last year, which is the second trade deadline, the one nobody ever talks about, because that\u2019s the one that\u2019s like C-rated CDOs and there\u2019s rarely any notable talent ever exchanged.<\/span><\/p>\n And that initial gamble paid off, and fed into my hypothesis of how much playing environment matters, with Kim\u2019s numbers improving noticeably going from Tampa to Atlanta.\u00a0 It\u2019s like going from sleepy Tampa with white trash and no Korean community to Atlanta, that sure, still has its share of white trash, but has a robust Korean community mattered, and across the board his counting stats all improved in roughly the same amount of plate appearances.<\/span><\/p>\n The union proved to be mutually beneficial enough to where the Braves actually spent money and spent money on a Scott Boras client, two things that the organization normally hasn\u2019t done a lot of historically, but it was a good opportunity for the Braves to get a reliable shortstop, and a good opportunity for Kim to possibly flex a season of being healthy and playing in a good environment, which he could then hope to parlay into a larger, more lucrative deal, likely away from Atlanta afterward.<\/span><\/p>\n But then he just had to go to Korea in the offseason, where the winters can be brutal, he slipped on some ice and fell and fucked up his hand, and before even reporting to Spring Training, the Kim deal had already begun to go tits up.\u00a0 He missed all of Spring Training, and it\u2019s evident that the lack of preparation put him in a miserable place to play catchup with, and when he returned to the Major League squad, he was joining the team that was contending and facing real pressure, and Kim just couldn\u2019t get going.\u00a0 He was a black hole in the lineup, and it went from it\u2019s too early to tell<\/em> to okay, maybe he does suck now<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n A setback that put him on the disabled list was kind of a convenient excuse to remove him from the roster and start getting some production from other players, and fans began to bemoan his inevitable return, because the Braves being the Braves always demand ROI, and they would undoubtedly be determined to recoup anything at all from the $20M they were paying him.<\/span><\/p>\n He hit well in his rehab assignment, which the team was milking to the absolute maximum to keep him out of the Majors, but when push came to shove and they were forced to bring him back up, they did the predictable thing and brought him back up, while releasing one of the guys who was filling in for him, and doing it better than he was.<\/span><\/p>\n But the fact that Kim can\u2019t hit Major League pitching goes to show that this is probably where he realistically is now, as a player.\u00a0 Capable of doing well against Triple-A talent, but unable to be competent in the Majors.\u00a0 As much as I support Kim personally, the reality is that his MLB career is more than likely done after this season, and he\u2019ll probably go back to Korea to where he can hopefully salvage a lucrative career out in the KBO.<\/span><\/p>\n Regardless, we\u2019re back to square one, where Kim is still sucking, and sucking to the magnitude of being on track to having the literal worst offensive season in MLB history, no hyperbole.\u00a0 bWAR is kind of a catch-all statistic, loosely used to measure player worth, and Kim is currently sitting on -1.0 bWAR, which doesn\u2019t sound like that much considering there are guys with worse, but it\u2019s the fact that he\u2019s gotten there in much shorter time that shows just how bad and detrimental he has been.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Google estimates the cost of one bWAR in 2026 is roughly $11M, so the fact that Kim is sitting on -1.0 bWAR, and is getting paid $20M to get there, his financial impact to the organization is -$31M dollars.\u00a0 That\u2019s nearly two not-retired Prince Fielder seasons, but the difference is that Fielder wasn\u2019t in the dugout adversely affecting a batting lineup, or on the field being fat, immobile and hurting the team defensively.<\/span><\/p>\n Most anyone with a brain knows that at some point, the roster spot is more valuable than a bad asset, and the smart play would have been cut Kim, eat the $20M, and to have kept Jorge Mateo, who at the time I\u2019m writing this, had contributed +0.7 bWAR to the Braves before he was ungratefully released.\u00a0 But like I said, the Braves are so corporate and so predictable, that everyone unfortunately knew that they were going to keep Kim and demand to get any modicum of ROI.<\/span><\/p>\n Again, I hate that this is happening to Kim, because this will undoubtedly make the baseball public continue to question Korean baseball players while still fetishizing Japanese ones, and I hate that it\u2019s happening to the Braves. This will further cloud their willingness to use the free agent market, and I\u2019m not going to hold my breath that I\u2019ll ever see a day where there\u2019s a standout Korean player on the Braves.<\/span><\/p>\n When the inevitable day comes where the Braves are bounced from the playoffs, many are going to be pointing their fingers at Kim, who sure, isn\u2019t undeserving of it, but the team is also culpable for keeping him, when more optimally strategic options were available the whole time, due to their obsession with ROI and getting their money\u2019s worth clouding optimal strategy.\u00a0 That part, wouldn\u2019t be on Kim.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BaseballWRLD: Braves\u2019 shortstop Kim Ha-Seong is statistically basically having the worst baseball season in history I really hate that it\u2019s a Korean player, on the Atlanta Braves, that is having this unfortunate distinction, but the proof is in the pudding and the numbers don\u2019t lie.\u00a0 I know that all over the internet, there are couch … Continue reading But of course, the Barves<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[196,66,79,45,191,103,83,143,52,58,49],"class_list":["post-51458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-barves","tag-braves","tag-cashmoney","tag-fail","tag-greed","tag-motherland","tag-observations","tag-ohatlanta","tag-owned","tag-sports","tag-wtf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51458"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51460,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51458\/revisions\/51460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}