The Orioles are still sorting through their offseason plan.
They’ve taken care of the catcher position for 2017, signing Welington Castillo and saying goodbye to Matt Wieters. Next on the list appears to be re-signing Mark Trumbo, or if that fails, turning to a similar power-hitting DH/corner OF type like Edwin Encarnacion, Jose Bautista or Chris Davis.
But as Dan Duquette seeks to upgrade his roster, he should keep in mind that he already has a potent and underused bat in the house – all he has to do is decide, along with manager Buck Showalter, to use it. That bat would be the one wielded by Hyun Soo Kim.
It seemed like Kim, who signed a two-year deal to leave Korea for Baltimore a year ago, had to fight for every plate appearance he received last season as Showalter, for whatever reason, seemed to look for reasons not to use him.
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The slow start in spring training certainly didn’t help, and Kim’s refusal to accept a minor league assignment certainly rankled management. But looking back, we can see now that Kim was right about not belonging in the minors, and how can you fault a player for holding the Orioles to the terms of the contract they signed?
So Kim found himself in a position where he had to impress Showalter and the Orioles. And while it was a slow journey to get there, he did just that.
Kim played in just six games in April, starting four of them, and he hit .600. In May he got more playing time and hit just .257, but he rebounded nicely in June with a .333 average and .908 OPS.
He ended up hitting .302 on the season with a sparkling on-base percentage of .382. While his power didn’t necessarily translate from Korea (only a .420 slugging compared to .541 in 2015), the rest of his offensive game certainly did.
Despite my location on the West Coast, I had the opportunity to watch Kim play in person in a three-game set between the Orioles and the Dodgers in Los Angeles in July. My three takeaways from that series, in which the Orioles won two of three, were as follows:
- Manny Machado is a better all-around player than Nolan Arenado. And I saw a lot of Arenado, and he’s great.
- The Orioles bullpen was tremendous.
OK so those first two observations could possibly be made by a blind man. But here’s the third:
- Hyun Soo Kim, at least for that series, was the toughest out in that lineup.
Not the best hitter, and nowhere near the most powerful, but the toughest out.
Kim started two of those games and played in all three, and all he did was make Dodger pitchers work pretty much every time he came to the plate. He ended up getting 14 plate appearances, thanks in part to the 14-inning series finale, and hit .308 (4-for-13) with a walk. He did strike out three times, but two of those were against Kenley Jansen, which hardly makes him a novelty.
But there were two things that really stuck out from that series that a casual box score perusal wouldn’t reveal.
For one thing, he saw a LOT of pitches – 63 in his 14 plate appearances, to be exact, which is 4.5 per PA. Eleven of those pitches came against Jansen, so it’s not like he was blown away with ease by the best closer in the National League.
The other thing that stood out was how he handled himself against lefties. Against Luis Avilan (.519 OPS vs lefties in 2016), he battled for six pitches before grounding out. Against Adam Liberatore (.494 OPS vs lefties), he lined out sharply to left field. And against veteran J.P. Howell (admittedly not the same threat he once was) he very nearly put the ball in the seats – to left field.
Now you can’t make too much from the numbers gleaned from one series of baseball, but you can learn something from watching an approach. And what Kim showed was a great knowledge of the strike zone, a deft handling of the bat and an ability – despite the results of those at-bats – to handle lefties.
Yes, I know that Kim was hitless against southpaws in 2016, but as that came on only 22 plate appearances one should not read too much into that. Of more importance is the fact that he had just as many walks as strikeouts against lefties (four each), which suggests that he sees them just fine — certainly adequately enough to get a chance to move beyond a platoon role.
The other thing that suggests Kim can hit lefties is that’s precisely what he did in Korea, hitting .331 against them in 2015. While he’s not going to do that in MLB, the signs suggest he’ll be perfectly adequate if given the chance.
Would a .280/.330/.400 slashline vs. lefties be unreasonable to expect given the .321/.393/.446 line he put up vs. righties last season? Would that be acceptable?
Yes. Not only would that be acceptable, it would look excellent in the leadoff role, setting the table for Machado, Chris Davis, J.J. Hardy, Jonathan Schoop and (hopefully) Trumbo.
What we know for certain about Kim is that he can hit righties. He proved that over the course of 2016. What we also learned is that he is not a great outfielder. If Trumbo ends up re-signing, then Kim will have to remain in the outfield, which is not ideal. But if Trumbo doesn’t return, Kim might be best suited for the rare position of leadoff hitter/DH.
What we don’t know for certain is if he can hit lefties consistently. Showalter didn’t give him a chance, but all the signs we outlined above point to Kim deserving that chance.
In early December, Duquette said he expected the team would platoon Kim in left field with Joey Rickard, but Showalter has hinted that there might be a larger role than that for Kim.
“I think about all the things that challenged him last year that are not going to challenge him this year, and we talk about guys that could go to another level, I think he’s got that potential,” Showalter told Brittany Ghiroli of MLB.com. “We saw flashes of it. You know, the left-handed-pitching thing just kind of snowballed. He’s a lot better than that. I think he’s an adequate defender, a guy that I could play in right field instead of left field if we needed to, especially in our ballpark.”
The Orioles might be warming to Kim, although at a glacial pace. But if they still aren’t yet sure what they have in Kim, they should find out, and not just in spring training either. Give him April, and maybe May. Stick him in the leadoff spot every day and see what he can do. If he fails, Showalter can always go back to a platoon.
But the guess here is that he’ll show he’s a big league-caliber leadoff hitter with a great eye for the strike zone and an ability to spray the ball to all fields. He’ll take a lot of pitches and he’ll take more than his fair share of walks.
He might not hit a bunch of homers, but the Orioles have plenty of guys who can do that. In fact, one could argue that what would be more valuable than having another muscle-bound slugger on this team is someone who can get on base for all the boppers already on the roster.
Kim can be that guy, and it’s time to give him a chance.
Orioles Analyst
Bob Harkins is a veteran journalist who has worked as a writer, editor and producer for numerous outlets, including 13 years at NBCSports.com. He is also the creator of the Razed Sports documentary podcast and the founder of Story Hangar, a network of documentary podcasters.