Padres’ Ha-Seong Kim Does One Thing As Well As Almost Any MLB Slugger

Maren Angus-Coombs | Apr 18, 2024

Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

On Tuesday, Ha-Seong Kim put the San Diego Padres up by four with a three-run home run in the first inning. According to the K-Zone technology, the pitch was off the plate.

Kim has become one of the league's best hitters when it comes to pitches off the plate. Per Inside Edge, he is slugging .362 (51 total bases in 141 at-bats) on pitches out of the zone since last season, which is fifth-best in the National League. To compare, the league average is .230.

The Gold Glover also has a keen eye. He leads the Padres with 13 walks this season and has the fourth-best on-base percentage at .337.

It is a positive sign for San Diego that Kim hasn't taken his defensive struggles into the box with him because he hasn't completely looked like himself defensively. It has come to the point where Kim has switched gloves.

“It’s not really just the fault of the glove,” the Padres shortstop said Monday through interpreter David Lee. “But the Rawlings glove right now that I’ve been using, it’s not really broken in completely to my liking. And I think that has put a slight mental pressure on me.”

Kim recently went through a stretch where he committed four errors in 22 chances. Before that, he had not made an error in 153 chances dating to last August when he committed his first of the season on April 7.

He only had 14 errors in his previous three seasons combined and the ugly stretch is unlike anything the Padres have seen from him but Kim is confident that he will be back to his old self in no time.

“There’s not really much to think about during the actual game because you always have the next inning, you always have to be ready for the next play,” Kim said. “I try to go out in the field to help my team in any way, especially defensively. So I just try to forget about it and reset my thoughts as soon as possible. … Although I have some errors under my belt, I’m not worried about it at all. I’m confident that I’ll still have very (good) defensive statistics at the end of the season. I’m pretty confident.”