It didn’t have to be this way.
After signing a two-year $7 million deal, Korean Baseball Organization star Hyun-Soo Kim was poised to be the Orioles left fielder for the near future. Kim was known as an on-base machine in the KBO and if you look at his nickname on his profile at Orioles.com it’s actually “Machine.” The guy was so popular, he even had his own theme song that Orioles fans were eager to adopt. The stage was set for fans to have another popular international player to root for, just as they did with Koji Uehera.
Then it all went south when the Orioles did – to Spring Training in Sarasota.
Things were just fine in the beginning, with manager Buck Showalter making sure to make Kim as comfortable as possible, even having a traditional Korean Bibimbap prepared for one of Kim’s first meals with the team.
We all knew Kim was going to need to adjust – not only to major league pitching, but to the major league lifestyle, training and culture. If he started slow, it was to be expected, so in his first game on March 1 when he went 0-3, nobody really batted an eye. In the next game he went 0-3 again, but it still wasn’t a big deal. After his third game however, you started to see some doubts creep in with Showalter in a quote he gave regarding Kim to MASNSports.com’s Roch Kubatko and other media members:
“I figure we’ll know about mid-May if he goes north with us and he’s playing like we hope he will. There’s so many things you just don’t know and try to. It’s like a guy you call from Triple-A. I’m not saying the KBO is Triple-A, I’m just saying it’s a different environment. When guys come up from Triple-A, the biggest challenge is the level of consistency you see.
“My gut would be if he has any problems it would be with the (fastball) velocity. Most of those guys over there have a pretty good breaking ball. I wish I knew for sure. But I’m as curious as you all.”
Showalter kept Kim out of the lineup for the next game on March 4th against the Jays in Dunedin but then played him the next game on March 5th where he went 0-4. He remained hitless throughout the next three games to run his streak to 0-21. Finally on March 10th against the Yankees, Kim beat out an infield single and the hitless streak was over. He notched his first RBI in that game as well.
After that first hit, it was easy to see that Kim got more comfortable at the plate but Showalter still didn’t quite like what he was seeing. He had fellow Korean, and former MLB first baseman Hee-Sop Choi attend a meeting with Kim and his interpreter and they all watched video of Kim’s at bats in the KBO on the evening of March 15thth.
After that meeting, Kim hit the ball the other way more in his next games on March 16th and 17th and had better at-bats overall with his refined swing, going 3-6 with 2 runs scored.
GulfBird Sports/Craig Landefeld
He didn’t play for a few games after that, but then on March 20th against the Rays he went 2-3 with two runs scored, his best performance of the season, so the time off didn’t hurt him.
After that game however, Showalter benched him again, not playing him until March 25th when he went 0-3, and then on March 26th giving him a pinch-hit appearance where he went 0-1. After that Showalter benched Kim indefinitely and the reports started to come out that the Orioles were looking to find a way to send him to the minors, back to Korea or give him his outright release.
What happened? Why did Showalter bench him after was batting .375 and was on base in every game after he ended his hitless streak?
The answer wasn’t Kim’s defense. Buck Showalter is known for being a huge stickler for players to be able to field a position, not just adequately but well. BaltimoreBaseball.com’s Dan Connolly did tweet that a scout had concerns with Kim’s arm and ability to get a good jump and take a good route on balls hit to the OF but Buck didn’t seem to share that concern based on this March 15th quote he gave to the media recorded by MASNSports.com’s Steve Melewski:
“’I’m not really committing … I don’t think anyone knows exactly how it will work out. There are some things that have gone on just about like I expected,’ he said. ‘Defensively, he is what I hoped and expected. Worth ethic has been good, he just hasn’t had consistent at-bats like he is capable of and I question why. I’m sure he has some anxiety about it. That is some of it. I think he has gotten out of who he is a little bit. I’ve seen enough video, he hits ball with authority the other way and we haven’t seen that.’”
But Kim had much better at bats after those first few games, hitting the ball the other way, maybe not with authority, but he was never really going to be a power guy. Jung-Ho Kang only hit 15 HRs in 126 games for Pittsburgh in 2015 after hitting 40 in 117 games in the KBO this season before. Kim was probably a 10 HR guy at best this season and to expect more than that wasn’t realistic.
The Orioles also have plenty of power on the team with Chris Davis, Pedro Alvarez, Mark Trumbo, Adam Jones and Manny Machado all likely capable of hitting 30 home runs or more. What they were lacking is what Kim provided – a player that would work the count, and get on base.
So if it isn’t his defense, and his offense, while he didn’t hit for power, was still valuable, why would Buck and the Orioles want him off the team?
It’s not like the other options were any better. Joey Rickard had made the team regardless being a Rule 5 pick and having the spring he had. Nolan Reimold had also likely made the team because he also was having a good spring, was a favorite of Showalter and Vice President of Baseball Operations Brady Anderson and had a career 102 wRC+ and wOBA of .331 on his resume. That left journeymen Steve Tolleson, Paul Janish, Alfredo Marte, and former Orioles prospect Xavier Avery competing against Kim for a roster spot.
One also has to ask the question – which one of those players was worth alienating future Korean talent entirely? Because of the bad experiences the Orioles have had with Korean talent – the fiasco with Seong-Min Kim and being banned from scouting amateur Korean talent in 2012, and Suk-Min Yoon being returned to Korea in 2015 – one would guess ending Kim’s major league dream in spite of never giving him a fair chance after he signed a major league contract would pretty much end the Orioles’ chances of signing good Korean talent.
That didn’t stop the Orioles though, as Dan Duquette said publicly on March 29th that Kim wasn’t likely to make the roster. That meant the Orioles would have to release him, or he’d have to accept a demotion, which the Orioles preferred because he wasn’t going back to Korea.
If the Orioles wanted Kim to accept a demotion, the correct move would have been to have Buck Showalter let him play all of Spring Training instead of benching him twice just after he started getting comfortable in the batter’s box. Either the hot streak would have ended and Kim would see he wasn’t ready, or it would have continued and Kim would have convinced the Orioles that he was a major league player. Benching him and then asking him to take a demotion was completely the wrong approach and only made the situation worse.
Kim, to his credit, took away the demotion option for the Orioles by simply not agreeing to it, because he didn’t have to. After all, what had he done wrong other than not meet unrealistic expectations? He only had a 16-game evaluation in Spring Training after all, with two benchings in the middle, hardly enough time to get acclimated. He also signed with the Orioles specifically because demotion was never originally an option as part of the contract terms.
The majority of Orioles fans have also turned against Kim, with some going as far as saying they’d boo him when he would be introduced on Opening Day because he wasn’t going to accept a demotion.
Boo him?
For what, wanting to play in Major League Baseball and asking the Orioles to honor the contract he signed? For taking a roster spot of an AAAA player that has already been given multiple opportunities to stick on a roster?
He is getting on base, he isn’t a defensive liability – at least according to Buck Showalter – and he’s working hard to make the team, as evidenced by his beating out all those infield singles. The baserunning ability he has shown this spring when he’s had the opportunity, in spite of not hitting the ball yet “with authority” as Showalter wants, has also been adequate.
Why then have so many turned against Kim?
(Also I found it interesting if you Google him as I tried to do when doing research for this article, he doesn’t even get a MLB.com profile reference in his top links while all the other Orioles do, including Joey Rickard. Cue Rodney Dangerfield.)
If you follow me on Twitter and if you’ve made it this far in this article, you can see that Kim has at least one Orioles fan in his corner. Kim is just the type of player the Orioles need, and I hope he gets a fair chance to prove it this season.
4 Responses
You pointed out the contract he signed; isn’t there also an implied contract with the other players and ticket buying public that you will make every effort to put the best team on the field to try and win the most games? If he had shown even a glimmer of the production he displayed in the KBO then he would have easily put the issue to bed. We don’t even know anything about him really, other than the box scores. Maybe he acted like a prima donna on the back fields of ST and oozed privilege or maybe he’s the hardest working man in Florida, I do not have any idea. What I do know is that I trust Buck and he says we are a team that gives opportunities and rewards those who seize those chances. It appears from a thousand miles away that Kim let that slip through his hands on the first go around.
Jonathan, With all due respect, I’m going to disagree with most — but not all — of your column. Based on his preseason failure, there is no way Hyun-Soo Kim should be running down the orange carpet with 24 teammates on opening day tomorrow. Buck Showalter’s desire was to bring the best players north to start the season against the Twins.
Kim isn’t one of those players. Might he be one later in the year? Maybe, maybe not, but that’s then and this is now, and now sees him putting his own interests ahead of the good of the Orioles, holding the club hostage by obstinately clinging to a roster spot he doesn’t deserve. I understand his excitement at having the opportunity to prove himself against the best players in the world, but he’s failing to look at the bigger picture.
Let me be clear, that’s Kim’s prerogative. The O’s front office shot itself in the foot by agreeing, sight unseen (at least as far as how he’d handle himself against the tougher competition he’d encounter in the States, even in just spring training), to a contract guaranteeing him a spot on the roster.
This isn’t an American superstar we’re talking about, but someone who’s played all his career in what’s the equivalent of AA. Dan Duquette should have firmly refused to include a “no minors” clause, informing Kim that he’d be signing for $7 million and that should be good enough. The Orioles needed to reserve the right to decide where he starts the season. Most assuredly, Kim would be in Norfolk or Bowie if Buck were making the call.
As for the reception Kim receives tomorrow, that remains to be seen (and heard), but I doubt it will be as warm as it would have been had he been a team player, taken a minor league assignment graciously and come back to the team later in the season. The O’s have playoff aspirations, and we can only hope that Kim’s selfish “me first” pursuit of his personal dream doesn’t ruin the bigger dream.
Just a question. What would you do if this was your situation at your work place?
You have contractual right to refuse the pay cut or demotion. Would you still take one for the team? I just can’t understand why that was seen as selfish “me first” act by Kim. That’s his job we are talking about.
Oh and KBO being equivalent of AA is just plain ridiculous.
Just google the W-L records for US vs Korea on international events such as WBC and premier 12.
Great article and point of view, I agree completely. Guy hits well enough in eight seasons to warrant a multi-year MLB deal, and they want to drop him after 44 spring training ABs(even though he hits well over .300 after the 0- start). Good for Kim, and with the Orioles’ thinking on this, they should trade the farm for Kawasaki, he had an OPS over 1000 and didn’t even make the Cubs.