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Should the Dodgers be looking into Ha-Seong Kim?
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Ha-Seong Kim is SS/3B from South Korea who’s been posted for MLB teams to bid on. He’s a right-handed bat who’s seen as one of the best hitters in South Korea. Over the last 4 years, he’s put up a ridiculous Ops of .896 which is super close to bordering on great. A great Ops is seen as .900+ so he’s been close to that. He’s only 25, he’s athletic and twitchy while also having a decent enough arm to stay on the left side of the infield. He doesn’t strike out a ton averaging 71 strikeouts a year over his 7-year career in South Korea. That’s 71 strikeouts in an average of 514 at-bats a year. In his last 2 seasons, he’s had 1,247 at-bats and only struck out 148 times that’s incredible. A strikeout % of 8.42 which is insane considering a great strikeout % is 12%. He clearly has had no issues putting the ball in play. However, he doesn’t walk a ton either, just at an 8.6% clip over the last few seasons which is about average.
Now comes the question, how will that translate to over here? Most scouts think there will definitely be an adjustment period where he might struggle but he will adjust and be a pretty good hitter. He has all the intangibles, and IQ on offense to be great. Zips projections have Kim Opsing at 8.30 over the next 3 years which is pretty good. So projections are pretty high on him as well. They project he’ll average 20 home runs, striking out less than 100 times a year, and being a close to 4 win player. A player like those projects to make more than 100 million. He won’t cost that just yet. The Dodgers had to pay 61.5 million for Ryu. 27.5 million for the posting fee and a 36 million dollar contract. Could Kim be the next one? There is obviously some risk here, and projections are just that projections. It’s clear there’s some upside here, and could very well be worth the risk.
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