There are still 24 games left until this season mercifully comes to a close but it appears that the Atlanta Braves have decided that their offseason started on September 1. That’s because the Braves pulled off a bit of a shocker by claiming SS Ha-Seong Kim (김하성) from the Tampa Bay Rays off of waivers. In fact, it wasn’t even widely known that Kim was on waivers to begin with and I’d imagine that it was actually a pretty quick process that once it happened and the Braves had the chance to claim him,
Braves President/GM Alex Anthopoulos jumped on the opportunity and brought him in.
At first glance, this is a pretty nifty move on the part of the Braves in order to bring him in. While Kim’s performance this season has been pretty poor, you could probably attribute that to the fact that this could just be a lost season for him. The Rays signed him knowing that he needed to recover from surgery to repair a torn labrum and he’s only played 24 games so far this season while putting up underwhelming numbers. He’s also been suffering from lower back inflammation, which is the ailment that placed him on the IL this time around. As such, his performance over these 24 games has been pretty rough as he’s hit .214/.290/.321 with a .275 wOBA, two homers and a 72 wRC+ on the year.
Yes, I chose the Korean-language version on purpose
Additionally, Kim has struggled with the glove this season as well, as he’s only put up an OAA of -1 so far with his arm strength going down a tick. Considering that he had to spend the entire offseason and most of this season recovering from the labrum surgery and the aforementioned back injury, I’d say that the injuries have played a big role in derailing his season rather than this being pure underperformance on this part.
I’d imagine that the Braves are banking on this simply being a fluke season for Kim, since he’s a daggone good player when he’s healthy. During his last three seasons in San Diego, Kim produced a wRC+ of 105 in 2022, 110 in 2023 and 201 in 2024, with an identical xWOBA of .313 for both 2023 and 20244. Additionally, his defense during those three seasons was absolutely incredible — he finished 2022 in the 94th percentile among all defenders with an OAA of 7., he bumped it up to an OAA of 9 and a 96th-percentile finish in 2023 and then he had a bit of a “let down” with an OAA of 4 and an 84th-percentile finish in 2024. The clear and obvious hope is that having a full offseason to focus on improving instead of simply getting healthy would be incredibly beneficial in helping Ha-Seong Kim return to form in 2026.
So at the end of the day, we’re talking about an above-average hitter with great defense at one of the premium positions in the field. That’s the profile that Ha-Seong Kim fits when he’s healthy and I think it’s safe to guess that the Braves will be hoping that he can show flashes of that ability as he’ll be getting plenty of run during this final month of the season. So if he’s such a good player, why did the Rays cut bait with him so quickly? According to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, the reason appears to be twofold:
With the Rays all but out of the playoff race, the decision to put Kim on waivers eliminates a major question the team would have faced, heading into the offseason. The $16 million would have been the highest single-season salary the Rays have paid a player. They also saved the approximate $2 million remaining on Kim’s $13 million salary for this season.
At the same time, the move gives the Rays a chance to evaluate [SS Carson] Williams, who was called up Aug. 21.
So yeah, there you have it: The Rays are being frugal (again), they’re out of the Postseason race and they have a young player who they feel like would be a better investment for the future than potentially paying Ha-Seong Kim $16 million next season and then $2 million on top of that for the rest of this season. For reference’s sake, Chipper Jones made $16 million around here back in 2005 (and was in line to make $17 million in 2006 before he agreed to a team-friendly contract restructure), so that tells you the level of spending that’s going on here. If you think the Braves are cheap then you haven’t been raised in the asylum that Rays fans have had to live in for most of their existence.
I’m saying that to say that unless Ha-Seong Kim is catastrophically bad over this final portion of the season, Atlanta would likely gladly have Kim around to be their starting shortstop for Opening Day 2026. Assuming he decides to stay with Atlanta, Ha-Seong Kim would slot in behind Ronald Acuña Jr. as the sixth-highest paid player on the team next year as he would be getting paid $1 million less than the face of the franchise. According to Spotrac, the Braves are currently on the hook for a payroll of $204.5 million, which will more-than-likely go up once you consider arbitration, pre-arbitration, any potential offseason wheeling-and-dealing and all of that good stuff.
With that being said, considering the position he plays and what he’s proven to be capable of while he’s healthy, I’d imagine that the Braves would be perfectly happy to pay Kim that $16 million in order to have the peace of mind that he’d provide at the keystone position with Ozzie Albies along with his ability at the plate. Good all-around middle infielders are very hard to find these days and if the Braves can say that they got one off of waivers to start the month of September during a lost season for both the player and the team, I’d say that they’d gladly take that deal and bet on both themselves and Ha-Seong Kim to turn it around in 2026.
The only question then becomes whether or not Ha-Seong Kim would be willing to exercise his player option in order to stay in Atlanta. While it seems like a no-brainer for Kim to stay, every other team in baseball that’s looking for a shortstop is very aware of how difficult it is to find quality players at that position and it wouldn’t be the most shocking thing in the world to see Ha-Seong Kim go back on the free agent market. On top of all that, he’s represented by Scott Boras and you know he’s not going to leave any potential money on the table if he believes that he can make it happen for his client — he’s done it before for a bunch of players under his representation, so he’s definitely not afraid of steering his players into the free agency market after a down season.
However, if Kim and his representation decide that he’d be best suited to take the $16 million to stay in Atlanta, then this a perfect fit for the Braves. There was already speculation last offseason that the Braves were interested in Ha-Seong Kim and now it appears like they’ve gotten a second chance to bring him in. Plus if the Braves are planning on improving this team, there’s no way around it: They will have to spend money in order to make it happen. Picking up a once-coveted free agent via the waiver wire and getting him for a bit of a trial run seems like a pretty solid deal for the Braves and it could turn into an absolute boon for next season’s team if he decides to stay.
So while this seems like a perfect fit for both parties, it all depends on whether or not Ha-Seong Kim can avoid a disastrous month of September and it also depends on whether or not he even wants to stick around in the first place. Either way, this is certainly a fascinating move on the part of the Braves. I’m not going to say that it’s high risk but it’s definitely risky since he could choose to leave. However, if he stays then the reward could be pretty massive when it comes to making sure that next season’s team can reload and return to contention as soon as possible. We’ll see what happens!
