Baltimore Orioles: Hyun Soo Kim on Day One
The Baltimore Orioles have announced the retention of Hyun Soo Kim after days of drama and attempts to get him to agree to additional time of adjustments at Norfolk.
The move sends spring season standout Xavier Avery to AAA instead, while also retaining Nolan Reimold. Apart from some of the varied issues we will discuss here today, the move is consistent with historic Orioles functioning — doing all that can be done to retain every player on a bubble. This was the only way to keep all three, at least for now.
One has to wonder what MLB Opening Day for Kim is going to look like and feel like. Though all fans hope for him (along with all other O’s players) to have a great season, there is reason for skepticism about the Korean lefty, both at the plate and in the field.
The question is if he is either being petulant in his insistence to enforce the contract or if he is genuinely clueless that he is not ready. The latter view puts him in a better light than the former possibility. In either event, this is an illustration of how a player-friendly contract that yields all of the leverage to the player is potentially harmful to the organization (all of the way down to the fanbase).
And this again brings to speculation as to what Opening Day is going to hold. What will the greeting in the stadium be like when his name is called and he chugs down the orange carpet? It is not going to sound like that for fellow newcomer Joey Rickard. And what will this do for Kim’s psyche? If a part of his refusal is related to some culturally-oriented aversion to “shame” about minor league demotion, what will a mildly hostile environment do to him? I don’t see this fellow as a sort of Korean version of, say, Donald Trump in terms of resilience. But maybe $7 million helps anyone buck up to whatever public difficulty is at hand, I truly do not know of that personally.
The Orioles fanbase has reacted to this in varied ways. The majority see Kim as foolishly stubborn, though some also blame the front office for creating the situation. Others are frustrated that Avery is not immediately available as a valuable lefty bat and defender, feeling he has suffered an injustice. A few also repeat the viewpoint that Reimold is not worthy of more chances and that he’ll break down again somehow (when does the statute of limitations expire on that?).
While believing that Kim has the ability to be successful and be what the O’s hoped for in signing him originally, I have to say that I fall out mostly with the first view above: that he is being foolishly stubborn in not receiving wise American MLB baseball evaluation. All of the conversation that he just wants to play and help the team win falls short of the truth if he is not able to do that very thing on April 4th against the Minnesota Twins. And culture aside, it is not impressive that a professional athlete (an outfielder, not a DH) shows up more than just a bit overweight.
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So ain’t this some fine kettle of fish? He is not ready, and he is not likely to get ready in any foreseeable on the job training sort of way — at least not without hurting the team he is being paid to help.
The best of all outcomes is that he proves all his skeptics wrong. We will be glad to repent in dust and ashes and cheer his high batting average and OBP, even if he is (on his best day) slow to the ball in left field and weak in his throw to the infield.