The MLB season is right around the corner as players are beginning to report for Spring Training. The regular season begins in a little over a month as the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers will get things going with two games in Korea. The Padres are a team to watch in the next month as there was some talk about a potential trade involving Ha-Seong Kim, but it sounds like he actually won’t be leaving San Diego that soon.
Ha-Seong Kim is about to enter his fourth season in the MLB, and he has been with the Padres for all of those seasons. He has been solid so far in his career with San Diego as last year he hit .260, had 17 home runs, 60 RBIs and a .749 OPS. In the field, he had 13 errors at short and second combined, which were his main two positions, and he has a career .977 fielding percentage at short, one of the toughest positions on the diamond. The Padres have been happy with how he has played.
“We value him a ton,” Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller said, according to an article from The Athletic. “He was arguably as important as any player for us on the field last year; he played great. … I think we’re excited to have him here. And I think he understands the value he brings to us and what we think about him, and I think he’s ready to have a big year, honestly.”
One thing that is important to note is that Kim is a Korea native, and it would be cool to see him play in his home country to open the season. Still, the Padres have to do what’s best for the team, even if that means making a difficult decision.
“Ultimately, it’s hard to line up on some of these things at times,” Preller continued. “That will be something, in terms of how that all plays out over the course of the next few months, that will be between us and Ha-Seong and his representatives.”
It sounds like the Padres aren’t planning on trading Kim before the season starts, but it is still something that could happen in the future. Kim will be prepared no matter what.
“I can only control what’s within my control,” Kim said through interpreter David Lee. “Being traded is something done with upper management. So, all my focus right now is just to focus on getting in shape for the season and putting the best foot forward for the season.”
Kim might not get traded as soon as people thought, but it sounds like the Padres are still looking to make some moves.
“It’s been a later-developing market (across the league), really,” Preller said. “I think we’ve had real honest trade conversations that are ongoing. … We’ve been pretty active in terms of still obviously some talented free agents that are out there.The team that starts camp here in the next couple days, it’s not going to be the team that obviously we finish with.”
We’ll see what the Padres end up doing with Kim and everyone else that they are thinking about trading. They will certainly be making some sort of move fairly soon.
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