Braves have a big decision looming at shortstop

Ha-Seong Kim has been in Gwinnett on a rehab assignment, where he’s shown some signs of life with the stick. The surface-level numbers aren’t all that great — he’s hitting just a hair over .200 with a .614 OPS — but he is hitting the ball hard with consistency, something he rarely showed over 27 games with the Braves this season.

Is it enough to earn him a spot back on the roster? I’m not sure, but it’s a decision that has to be made over the next 24 hours. His 20-day rehab stint expires today, meaning the Braves either have to bring him back to Atlanta, designate him for assignment, or move him in a trade.

If the Braves eat almost all of the remaining money he’s owed, it’s conceivable there would be some interested parties across the league, but it would be foolish to act like the market is going to be robust. The most likely scenario is they decide who could be more valuable for the rest of the season: Kim or Jorge Mateo.

Mateo offers tremendous speed on the bases and is better defensively, but the offense has really fallen off a cliff since the start of June. He’s hitting just .120 with a .330 OPS over his last 53 plate appearances. Those are still better numbers than Ha-Seong Kim produced, of course, but there’s no question the monetary aspect will hold some weight in these conversations. The Braves are going to want to see if they can get anything out of the $20 million investment they made in the offseason.

What absolutely should not be on the table is optioning Jim Jarvis. I know losing Kim or Mateo means thinning the overall depth at the position, but Jarvis has provided the first spark at shortstop we’ve seen since Orlando Arcia‘s first half in 2023. His playstyle is infectious, he’s been tremendous defensively, and he’s sporting a 104 OPS+ — 4% above league average — over his first 24 games. The Braves should be riding that wave as long as they can, because it looks like they may have found an incredible diamond in the rough.