Infielder Hyeseong Kim, who stars for the Korea Baseball Group’s Kiwoom Heroes, has employed CAA Baseball to characterize him forward of his anticipated transfer to Main League Baseball within the upcoming offseason, studies Jeeho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap Information Company. (Kim’s title is usually written as Kim Hye-Seong or Hye-Seong Kim, however Yoo additional notes by way of X that CAA particularly knowledgeable him the infielder will go by Hyeseong Kim if he certainly strikes to North American ball.)
Kim, who’ll flip 26 subsequent January, is sufficiently old and has sufficient expertise in a serious international league to be thought-about a “skilled” beneath Main League Baseball’s worldwide requirements. He’ll be exempt from worldwide beginner free-agent bonus swimming pools and thus in a position to signal a serious league contract for any size and greenback quantity with an staff.
The previous double-play accomplice of present Padres infielder Ha-Seong Kim, the youthful Kim is a lifetime .301/.361/.398 hitter in 876 video games with the KBO’s Heroes. One of many major knocks on his MLB outlook all through his professional profession has been an absence of energy, however he’s begun to alter that narrative in his age-25 marketing campaign. The lefty-swinging Kim has appeared in 50 video games and brought 224 plate appearances this yr however has already set a brand new career-high with eight dwelling runs. (He’d beforehand hit seven homers in two totally different seasons, together with 2023.) Total, Kim is slashing .309/.366/.471 this season — his fourth consecutive season with a .300 or higher common.
Kim has additionally picked up seven doubles and a triple this season along with going 15-for-16 in stolen bases. The 6.7% stroll fee Kim has posted to this point in 2024 is a career-low — maybe an indication of a extra aggressive method as he tries to showcase for MLB groups, speculatively talking — however his minuscule 9.8% strikeout fee can also be the bottom of his profession. Kim has dropped his strikeout fee in each season of his professional profession, starting with a 25.2% mark again in 2018. He’s now seen as a hitter with plus contact abilities, effectively above-average velocity — he’s 195-for-226 (86.3%) in profession stolen base makes an attempt — and a robust glove within the center infield.
Previous to the 2023 World Baseball Traditional, Baseball America’s Kyle Glaser ranked Kim ninth among the many top-ten MLB prospects for followers to trace (touchdown behind present massive leaguers Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Jung Hoo Lee and Yariel Rodriguez). Glaser known as Kim a plus defender at second base (and a succesful defender at quick) with a “preternatural really feel for contact,” good pitch recognition and the power to catch as much as good velocity. On the very least, he might profile as a utilityman with high-end velocity and phone abilities, although it ought to come as little shock if there are golf equipment who view him as a possible common at second base. Given his age, Kim ought to discover massive league curiosity — significantly if he can proceed his newfound energy output.
CAA most famously represents Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani however can also be one of many trade’s largest companies, representing dozens of shoppers, together with high-profile names like Willy Adames, Sandy Alcantara, Corbin Carroll, Jack Flaherty, Max Fried, Lucas Giolito, Jon Grey, Josh Hader, J.T. Realmuto and Trea Turner — amongst many others (as might be seen in MLBTR’s Company Database).
