{"id":353536,"date":"2025-12-17T08:53:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T08:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/353536\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T08:53:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T08:53:13","slug":"as-made-four-year-offer-to-ha-seong-kim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/353536\/","title":{"rendered":"A’s Made Four-Year Offer To Ha-Seong Kim"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ha-Seong Kim<\/a> is back in Atlanta after signing a $20MM deal<\/a> to remain the club\u2019s starting shortstop. He took a one-year contract that\u2019ll allow him to get back to free agency after what he hopes to be a healthy season. ESPN\u2019s Jeff Passan<\/a> reported last night that Kim had declined multi-year offers.<\/p>\n

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic<\/a>\u00a0writes that the A\u2019s proposed a four-year, $48MM deal. It\u2019s unclear if that would have included any opt-out opportunities, though it seems safe to assume they wouldn\u2019t have risked a four-year commitment that allowed him to opt out after just one season. The A\u2019s have a franchise shortstop in Jacob Wilson<\/a> but are looking for second and\/or third base<\/a>\u00a0help.<\/p>\n

Kim bet on himself with a straight one-year deal at a higher rate.\u00a0Gleyber Torres<\/a> accepted a qualifying offer, while\u00a0Jorge Polanco<\/a> commanded $20MM annually on a two-year contract from the Mets. The A\u2019s certainly aren\u2019t going to sign\u00a0Bo Bichette<\/a> or Alex Bregman<\/a> to contracts north of $150MM. Rosenthal writes that NPB stars Munetaka Murakami<\/a> and\u00a0Kazuma Okamoto<\/a> are also expected to be out of their price range.\u00a0Eugenio Su\u00e1rez<\/a> might be a long shot, as he command a similar annual salary to Kim and Polanco over two or three years.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a significant drop from there in free agency.\u00a0Willi Castro<\/a>,\u00a0Isiah Kiner-Falefa<\/a>,\u00a0Yo\u00e1n Moncada<\/a>,\u00a0Luis Rengifo<\/a> and KBO hitter\u00a0Sung-mun Song<\/a> are all one-year deal candidates. Song and Castro are probably the best bets to command a multi-year contract. The former at least comes with some intrigue as an upside play after consecutive strong seasons in Korea, but scouting reports raise questions about his pure hitting ability. The market for Song has been quiet publicly, but he\u2019ll need to sign by Sunday or stay with the KBO\u2019s Kiwoom Heroes for the \u201926 season.<\/p>\n

The second base trade market has gotten more attention.\u00a0Ketel Marte<\/a> and\u00a0Brendan Donovan<\/a> are the prizes, but the A\u2019s aren\u2019t great fits in either case. Marte\u2019s six-year, $102.5MM contract is well below market value but would easily be the largest deal in A\u2019s history. Donovan is affordable for any team, but the Cardinals are prioritizing controllable starting pitching. The A\u2019s have a few talented arms (e.g. Luis Morales<\/a>,\u00a0Jacob Lopez<\/a>,\u00a0Braden Nett<\/a>) who might appeal to St. Louis, but a lack of rotation depth is already the roster\u2019s biggest flaw.<\/p>\n

The Rays are open to offers on\u00a0Brandon Lowe<\/a>, who\u2019ll make $11.5MM in the final year of his contract. Rosenthal writes that Tampa Bay isn\u2019t interested in accepting a lowball offer merely to shed the salary. President of baseball operations Erik Neander said at the Winter Meetings that the Rays would be happy carrying Lowe and\u00a0Yandy D\u00edaz<\/a> into the season<\/a>. The Mets are shopping\u00a0Jeff McNeil<\/a>, but they\u2019d probably need to eat a portion of the $17.75MM remaining on his deal. Impending free agents Nico Hoerner<\/a> and\u00a0Jazz Chisholm Jr.<\/a> have come up loosely in trade rumors yet seem unlikely to move.<\/p>\n

Speculatively speaking, Jake Cronenworth<\/a> could be a potential fit. The Padres owe him $12MM annually through 2030. That\u2019s a year longer than the A\u2019s were willing to go on Kim but matches the average annual value they offered over four. A willingness to spend $12MM per season on Kim doesn\u2019t necessarily mean they\u2019d do the same for Cronenworth, who is a superior hitter but not as good a defender. Still, the Padres have looked for ways to clear payroll space to free money for their own rotation needs, so it\u2019d make sense for the teams to explore trade scenarios.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ha-Seong Kim is back in Atlanta after signing a $20MM deal to remain the club\u2019s starting shortstop. He…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,24617,64849,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-353536","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-brandon-lowe","11":"tag-ha-seong-kim","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}