Listen To Bleeding Yankee Blue, We Know Ha-seong Kim Would Be Great!

The New York Yankees might be looking to add some serious defensive swagger to their infield with Ha-Seong Kim, former Padre utility man and Gold Glove winner. Think of him as the baseball equivalent of duct tape: reliable, versatile, and capable of fixing a lot of problems.

MLB analyst Steven Russell summed it up similarly to how BYB has: “Ha-Seong Kim … perfect Yankees fit after Gleyber Torres. Defense-first guy who is at least an average hitter. He’s also very versatile defensively. I think the team could use it.” (Translation: He’s like a human cheat code for your infield defense.)

Kim’s ability to play anywhere in the infield is basically what you’d create in a video game if you could max out all the sliders on defense. Sure, Anthony Volpe is penciled in as the Yankees’ shortstop for roughly 160 games—assuming no freak injuries or “load management” days—but Kim can easily slot in at second or third base.

Let’s be honest: Gleyber Torres might have his moments, and I really like the guy and that opinion is unpopular. But for Gleyber, consistency isn’t one of his strong suits. Enter Kim, who brings a .706 career OPS to the plate and a glove that could probably save a cat from a tree. He’s not going to slug like Aaron Judge, but that’s okay—Kim’s job would be to make sure fewer balls sneak through the infield, not hit 62 homers.

Defensively, Kim’s 2023 Gold Glove speaks for itself—though his 14th-place finish in NL MVP voting doesn’t hurt, either. He’s not just a “defense-first guy”, he’s a “defense-always guy.” A career 99 OPS+ might not light the world on fire, but pair that with a .326 on-base percentage and Gold Glove-level defense, and you’ve got yourself a sneaky valuable player.

The Yankees could pencil Kim into the sixth or seventh spot in the lineup and let him do his thing: making routine plays look easy and impossible plays look routine. He might not bat .300, but he’ll save more runs than he gives away, which feels like a fair trade.

Kim just wrapped up a four-year, $28 million deal with the Padres, and he might be in line for something similar—maybe on a shorter, two-year deal. Shoulder surgery from October could slow him down, but if he’s ready for Opening Day, signing Kim could feel like finding a designer bag in the clearance bin.

By the way, shoutout to us here at Bleeding Yankee Blue for staying ahead of the curve on this one—they’ve been hyping Kim for weeks. If the Yankees listen, they might snag themselves a low-key game-changer.

So, will the Yankees finally prioritize defense and versatility over their usual “swing-for-the-fences” strategy? Only time will tell. But if Kim ends up in pinstripes, it’ll be a move that makes both baseball sense and financial sense—plus, it’ll give Yankees fans a lot fewer reasons to yell at their TV over botched double plays.

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