San Francisco Giants free-agent profile: Ha-Seong Kim, SS

Welcome to the most obvious move for the Giants this offseason. Last year, I moved Matt Chapman up on my calendar because he was the most obvious move, and even though it took a while, it happened. Ha-Seong Kim fits the Giants in roughly a dozen ways, and he shouldn’t require a long-term commitment. Unless he’s smitten with the Padres and the roster they’ve built, which is certainly possible, this seems like a matter of “when” and not “if.”

Today, however, we’ll look at the “should.” There’s a lot to like about Kim, but he’s also waving some of the brightest red flags the textile industry has ever sent to market.

Why the Giants would want Ha-Seong Kim

First, let’s acknowledge the elephant in the room: It’s neat that Kim is BFFs with Jung Hoo Lee, dating back to the days when they had adorably matching .921 OPSs on the 2020 Kiwoom Heroes, but that can’t be a primary, secondary or even tertiary reason the Giants sign Kim. It would be neat and fun, no more and no less. Acquiring matching sets of buddies isn’t how baseball teams are built. Imagine if Buster Posey built his front office almost entirely through personal relationships, comfort level and vibes. It’s such a silly idea that …

Wait.

OK, fine, but the Kim-Lee angle is so far down the list that it barely merits consideration. It’s always enjoyable to watch baseball pals in the dugout, but it was even more enjoyable to watch Jeff Kent and Barry Bonds try to strangle each other, then finish 1-2 in the NL MVP voting.

The Giants would want Kim because the best version of him is supremely helpful. He’s the rare infielder who could win a Gold Glove at second base or shortstop — most Gold Glove shortstops are too inexperienced at second to be Gold Glove-caliber, and vice versa. He would bring speed to a lineup that desperately needs it. He’s also young, just 29, and it’s not unthinkable that he could get even better in his fifth season in the majors. His production was trending upward before his injury.

His serious, possibly limiting injury. But we’ll get to that.

When we looked at Willy Adames, we played the comparison game, and it turned out that he was fairly similar to Juan Uribe’s best seasons, which isn’t a bad thing at all. Kim allows us to play the comparison game again, and it’s even more fun. First, here’s Kim:

And now here he is compared to the mysterious Player X:

Kinda spooky. The point of this isn’t to suggest that Kim will continue to have a similar career, or that they’re identical players. It’s just a way of explaining what it was like for Padres fans to watch Kim. It was very similar to how Giants fans felt watching Brandon Crawford in those three years, right down to the Gold Gloves.

At no point did you stop and ask yourself what Crawford was doing on the Giants back then. He was an outstanding player, performing death-defying stunts on the infield and hitting more than enough to help the Giants score runs. Like almost every other baseball comp, there are cracks the closer you look. Kim has speed and his prime years came at a younger age; Crawford was even better defensively, and he had even more power, especially when you adjust for him being a left-handed hitter at Oracle Park.

Still, that’s a heckuva elevator pitch. Remember when the Giants could just wind Crawford up and forget about him until he did something helpful and/or amazing? Kim’s a similar player when he’s healthy. That is a very important caveat. But we’ll get to that.

Kim doesn’t help the Giants much when it comes to their below-average team power, but that really shouldn’t be the middle infield’s responsibility. It’s a gift to get a disproportionate amount of power from shortstops and second basemen, but there are other, easier ways to source dingers.

Entering the 2024 season, it sure looked like Kim was going to be an obvious fit for the Giants on a long-term contract, but there’s some good news on that front! Kim won’t even want a long-term contract now. No sir, he’ll take a one-year deal with a player option, most likely, which means the Giants can add him onto the team without committing to him deep into his 30s. What luck!

Let’s get to that now.

Why the Giants wouldn’t want Ha-Seong Kim

On Aug. 18, Kim hurt his shoulder diving back to first base, and he later had surgery to repair a torn labrum in his throwing shoulder. It’s a little reductive to suggest that a torn labrum is the worst injury for a shortstop who accumulates most of his value on the defensive side, but put it this way: If you felt strongly that it was the worst injury for a player like Kim, it’s not like the people in the knee or back camps would think you were a moron. It’s not the wrong answer, in other words.

Kim walks off the field after his injury. (Dustin Bradford / Getty Images)

And it’s a scary enough injury to make you wonder about every single positive laid out in the previous section. Fernando Tatís Jr. was a fantastic shortstop until he tore his labrum, and now he’s an outfielder. Zack Cozart was an excellent defender until he tore his labrum, and then he never played again. Trevor Story tore his labrum a lot earlier than Kim last season, and the Red Sox are currently in the market for a shortstop, which gives you an idea of how confident they are when it comes to a shortstop with a labrum tear.

Before the injury, Kim had consistently above-average arm strength. His defensive value comes more from his superlative range, so it’s not as if his entire defensive identity was built around his arm. Still, if the Giants weren’t worried about arm strength from a shortstop, they’d probably just stick with Tyler Fitzgerald. The whole point of getting a defensive wunderkind is to have him be a defensive wunderkind. The second you have to start adding qualifiers and context to explain where the defense is imperfect, something’s already gone awry. A Gold Glove shortstop with compromised arm strength is no longer a Gold Glove shortstop.

Now, to hear agent Scott Boras tell it, Kim will be at 100 percent in the first or second month of the season. Heck, he’ll be at 120 percent. He’ll be better than ever. He’ll might even be like Henry Rowengartner, the famous Cubs pitcher from that documentary, throwing even harder than before. But I’ll be honest, I’m not sure if Boras is an impartial evaluator in this matter. Frankly, it’s possible that he’s biased, so keep that in mind.

Verdict

Kim will take a pillow contract with the hopes that he can prove himself in 2025, then seek the typical Boras contract next offseason. So while there’s no shortage of doom and gloom in the second section, there really isn’t a ton of risk for the Giants here. In a best-case scenario, Kim plays well and loves the situation he’s in, then signs a long-term deal. I’d scoff at the idea of a Boras client going that route, except that’s exactly what Chapman did.

And in a less-favorable scenario, Kim’s arm bumps him down a tier or two in the defensive shortstop rankings, and his .700-something OPS isn’t as palatable for a lineup that needs fewer players with that kind of offensive ceiling, not more. But the Giants aren’t stuck in this scenario. So, much like all of the other pillow contracts over the past several years, the only possible action is, “Sure. Why not? Can’t hurt that much to take a look.”

I’m in, especially if the people in white coats take a gander at Kim’s medical reports and feel encouraged by them. I would still prefer Adames, though, even though he was extended a qualifying offer, unlike Kim, and would cost the Giants a draft pick. There’s more power and fewer injury concerns. Plus, it would be a long-term solution, whereas Kim might be around for only one season, leaving the Giants in the same position next season, when Bo Bichette and Tommy Edman are the only shortstops worth getting excited about. The system is thin at shortstop, so unless Diego Velasquez keeps hitting for average wherever he goes, they’re going to need an external solution for next season, too. Kim might not be it.

Kim would be a reasonable gamble to take, though. He fits the roster and the clubhouse, and if he’s healthy, he could be a Chapman-like revelation, accumulating all the WARs and making the Giants more watchable than they previously were.

If he’s healthy. That’s one of the bigger ifs of the offseason for any player and any team. Your personal tolerance for risk is the only argument against the potential rewards.

Previous free-agent profiles

• Roki Sasaki, RHP

• Blake Snell, LHP

• Juan Soto, OF

• Willy Adames, SS

(Top photo: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)