Much of the attention on the Atlanta Braves recently has been around Austin Riley's struggles as well as Drake Baldwin's tough re-entry into the lineup after his IL stint. However, one can't forget that one player that has been unplayably bad this year, Ha-Seong Kim, is also the guy the Braves gave $20 million to fix their issues at shortstop. Most fans saw the signing as savvy, but that is not how things have gone at all.
It shouldn't be controversial that Kim is looking like the worst offseason move the Braves have made since...well, since signing his former Padres teammate Jurickson Profar only to see Profar miss most of two seasons with PED suspensions. While the other shortstop options available to Atlanta at the time haven't exactly lit the world on fire, it would be hard to be worse than Kim has been between his lengthy IL stint with a finger injury and his .077/.167/.077. Hell, there are Braves pitchers that may actually be able to do better than Kim has at the plate.
Everyone is on the same page that Kim has been bad and should lose playing time, but actual explanations for those struggles and solutions to them have been few and far between. Braves insider for The Athletic, Jesus Cano, recently talked to Kim and suggested one potential problem with his swing, and while that may be part of the problem, it certainly isn't the end of the list.
Ha-Seong Kim's swing is definitely off, but the Braves may not even want the best version of Kim that he can be anymore
According to Cano (and the numbers do bear this out), Kim's swing is much more uphill than it had been in the past. In his opinion, Kim's finger surgery could be messing with his ability to grip his bat properly and causing him to change his swing for the worse. Again, there are some merits to this point of view. Hitters' hands and wrists are far more critically important than casual observers think, so it is entirely possible that he just isn't all the way back, yet.
However, the idea that his finger is the only problem is pretty suspect. With the brutal timing of his finger injury during the offseason, it is easy to forget that Kim missed a bunch of time last year with a shoulder injury that required surgery to repair a torn labrum. If you think finger injuries can mess a guy's swing up, the shoulder that governs their top hand, which is responsible for stability, direction, and a good bit of the power in a swing, can be much, much worse and without as clear a path to a full recovery.
On top of that, Kim was never a guy who made much hard contact to begin with, and most of his value came from his glove and, particularly, his arm. Not only is he not getting any younger at 30 years old, which doesn't help him at the plate, but Kim's value as a defender has taken a hit because, again, he severely injured his throwing shoulder.
If the Braves can get Kim to adjust his swing in a way that is productive in 2026, that would be great, because that $20 million feels wasted right now. Unfortunately, the odds are stacked against Kim given his profile, and Atlanta may be better served to just consider his deal a sunk cost.
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