It's no secret that the Atlanta Braves are still searching for stability at shortstop. Since Dansby Swanson's departure following the 2022 season, the team has tried multiple options to replicate his production on both sides of the ball, whether it was Mauricio Dubón, Jim Jarvis or Ha-seong Kim. The Braves still haven't found that everyday replacement, and Kim in particular provides a cautionary tale as Atlanta heads into the offseason.
Re-signing Kim wasn't necessarily a bad decision at the time, but his disappointing 2026 season demonstrates the risk of committing significant resources to a player with health concerns. Atlanta needs to apply those lessons when addressing its more pressing needs this winter.
The Braves claimed Kim off waivers from the Tampa Bay Rays on Sept. 1, 2025, and he performed adequately in the season's final month, hitting .253 with three home runs and 12 RBIs in 24 games. The team viewed that as enough production in a short period of time to award him a one-year, $20 million deal on Dec. 15 to be their everyday shortstop in 2026.
On paper, it made sense. Atlanta needed a player who could suit up every day at the position and provide value, and Kim was a 2023 Gold Glove winner with the San Diego Padres. The one-year commitment also created a bridge between the needs of the present and the shortstop prospects of the future, giving the young players in the system more time to develop.
From that point on, nothing went according to plan. One month after signing, Kim slipped on ice in South Korea and tore a tendon in his right middle finger, requiring hand surgery. He was sidelined for four months, made his season debut on May 12 (ironically, against Swanson's Chicago Cubs), and later dealt with additional inflammation in the same finger.
From there, Kim was barely more productive than he would have been had he stayed on the injured list. He appeared in 51 games and collected just 15 hits in 147 plate appearances, to the tune of a miserable .116/.219/.140 slash line. Among all hitters with at least 140 plate appearances, he finished with the lowest wRC+ in baseball. Defensively, he accumulated a Statcast-based value of -3, and he went 0-5 with three strikeouts in the postseason.
Meanwhile, Mauricio Dubón emerged as the reliable stopgap the Braves had been looking for. The team got the Gold Glove-caliber defense and consistent bat it wanted at the position, just not from the player it paid $20 million to provide it.
Atlanta acquired Dubón in exchange for Nick Allen, a player the Braves were looking to Kim to replace, but it was Dubón who later proved to be the answer. He has a chance to win a Gold Glove for the third time in his career, provides much-needed defensive versatility, and has the public backing of Alex Anthopoulos at shortstop going forward. The decision to re-sign him seems clear, and his relative affordability in a thin free-agent shortstop market would allow the Braves to shift focus and resources to starting pitching and left field.
So what's the lesson? The Braves certainly couldn't have foreseen the freak accident that derailed Kim's season, but he does have an extensive injury history dating back to when he first entered Major League Baseball from South Korea. The lesson isn't necessarily that Anthopoulos should avoid signing players with injury histories.
Calculated risks are part of building a competitive roster. The bigger issue is investing heavily in one player without enough certainty or depth behind him. The $20 million tab looks especially problematic when held up against the needs the team still has because of it. Dubón was largely brought in to help solve the left field gap - as that's where the utility man spent most of his time defensively - but he was called into action elsewhere, so the team solved one problem at the expense of another. Where else could those Ha-seong Kim funds have been stretched to impact the Braves in a more meaningful way?
Yes, Kim's disappointing season was influenced by circumstances largely outside his control, but the financial commitment nevertheless produced little of the stability the organization expected. This $20 million mistake doesn't have to become a lasting setback if Atlanta learns from it. Maximizing the value of under-the-radar players is one of the things Anthopoulos does best, and Ha-seong Kim may just be a blip in an otherwise reliable narrative.
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