{"id":475922,"date":"2026-02-15T05:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T05:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/475922\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T05:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T05:49:10","slug":"ha-seong-kim-could-return-in-early-may","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/475922\/","title":{"rendered":"Ha-Seong Kim Could Return In Early May"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just over a month after signing a one-year, $20MM deal to come back to the club, Braves shortstop Ha-Seong Kim<\/a> went down with a torn tendon in his finger. The team announced<\/a> the initial recovery timeline to be four to five months. Kim is trending toward an earlier return. General manager Alex Anthopoulos told reporters, including Mark Bowman of MLB.com<\/a>, that there\u2019s hope Kim could come back in early May.<\/p>\n

Kim popped up as an option on MLBTR\u2019s list of 60-day IL candidates<\/a>, though he was more of a long shot. Atlanta will likely do what it can to avoid making that move if there\u2019s any chance Kim can be back on the early end of the timeline. The recent update from Anthopoulos makes a 60-day IL placement all the more unlikely.<\/p>\n

The Braves scooped up Kim off waivers from Tampa Bay late last season, with the Rays looking to duck the shortstop\u2019s $16MM player option. Atlanta wasn\u2019t able to get Kim back on the player option, but did convince him to sign for an extra $4MM as a free agent. He was set to return as the club\u2019s starting shortstop.<\/p>\n

Kim delivered solid production in his final three seasons in San Diego, including a 17-homer, 38-steal season in 2023. He also netted a Gold Glove award that year. Kim then landed in Tampa Bay as a free agent. The Rays gave him a two-year, $29MM deal with an opt-out, despite the fact that Kim was recovering from right shoulder surgery. He played just 24 games with the team.<\/p>\n

Atlanta will likely patch together the shortstop position until Kim is healthy. The team acted quickly after the news broke, signing utilityman Jorge Mateo<\/a> the very next day. Mateo has bounced around defensively in his six-year career, but he\u2019s spent the most time at shortstop (294 appearances). The Braves acquired Mauricio Dub\u00f3n<\/a> in a trade with the Astros. Nick Allen<\/a>, Atlanta\u2019s primary shortstop last season, went the other way in the deal. Dub\u00f3n is a candidate to mix in at the position. The Braves also re-acquired Brett Wisely<\/a> as additional infield depth.<\/p>\n

Led by the defensive-minded Allen, the Braves finished dead last in OPS at shortstop in 2025. Allen put up a .530 mark in 408 plate appearances. Orlando Arcia<\/a>, Vidal Bruj\u00e1n<\/a>, and Luke Williams<\/a> were even worse. Kim slashed a middling .253\/.316\/.368 in two dozen games with Atlanta.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Jordan Godfree, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just over a month after signing a one-year, $20MM deal to come back to the club, Braves shortstop…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,14261,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-475922","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-ha-seong-kim","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}