San Diego Padres infielder Ha-Seong Kim is one of the more interesting free agents on the market this winter. On one hand, Kim is an elite glove at shortstop with a very capable bat as well. On the other hand, he's coming off a pretty serious shoulder injury.
Predicting the value of his contract in free agency will be tough. He'll likely sign for much less than he's worth, which leads me to believe his deal may only be two or three years.
Zachary Rymer of Bleacher Report recently predicted the Padres infielder to sign a four-year, $60 million deal with the Detroit Tigers. During the article, Rymer compared Kim to San Francisco Giants infielder Willy Adames, as the two have comparable WARs over the last few seasons.
"This is, of course, deliberately provocative. At his best, Adames is a 30-homer slugger who plays Gold Glove-caliber defense at shortstop," Rymer wrote. "At his best, Kim is only capable of the latter. And even this is assuming a strong recovery from right shoulder surgery.
"Good shortstop defense is nonetheless a valuable commodity, and it's but one service that Kim provides in the field. He's also a capable defender at third base and second base. Kim is also an elite bat-to-ball hitter who had a whiff rate in the 92nd percentile in 2024 and, unlike Adames, a consistently above-average baserunner."
Kim and the Tigers make sense in a few ways. He's a very talented infielder that would be affordable at $15 million a year. If he comes back from his injury like the old Kim, the Tigers landed a steal.
That's a big "if" though. Detroit has already experienced quite a nightmare at shortstop with Javier Baez. The last thing the Tigers need is another infielder that signs for big money and doesn't produce. Signing Kim comes with a big risk, which is something the Tigers would need to be very wary of in this case.
Honestly, I feel as though he'll return fine. I'm sure the Tigers, in this case, would do beyond their due diligence to be sure of it. A healthy Kim fits perfectly in Detroit's lineup.
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