Rumor: Padres Open to Dealing Shortstop Ha-Seong Kim

[Brock Beauchamp]

The Padres have a glut of talented infielders and their situation only grew more complicated with the signing of Xander Boegarts earlier in the offseason. Unsurprisingly, reports are now emerging that they're taking calls on young shortstop Ha-Seong Kim. The return on Kim would likely be significant. He's 27 years old and under team control through the 2026 season.

In only 267 games played, Kim has accumulated 7.1 bWAR, including 5.1 in 2022 alone. Kim was a standout player in the KBO (Korean Baseball Organization), where he played nearly 900 games while posting an .866 OPS. The Padres signed him out of the KBO only two years ago and it's not a stretch to suggest he may not be happy with a bench role given his MLB production thus far.

What would it take to trade for Kim?

View full rumor

[PseudoSABR]

Give them Kepler, and throw in Duensing if needed.  

[jorgenswest]

Two possible matches from BTV. One with a major leaguer and the other a prospect package.

Bailey Ober straight up?

Julien, Woods-Richardson and Canterino?

 

 

 

[Brock Beauchamp]

14 minutes ago, PseudoSABR said:

Give them Kepler, and throw in Duensing if needed.  

Stuck the landing. Well done. 

[Brock Beauchamp]

4 minutes ago, jorgenswest said:

Two possible matches from BTV. One with a major leaguer and the other a prospect package.

Bailey Ober straight up?

Julien, Woods-Richardson and Canterino?

BTV is that high on Ober? Wow. 

[Doctor Gast]

It'd take Kepler, Martin & Miller type trade. Or maybe Ober straight up. I wouldn't do it.

He'd help, but not my 1st choice

[jorgenswest]

2 minutes ago, Doctor Gast said:

It'd take Kepler, Martin & Miller type trade. Or maybe Ober straight up. 

He'd help, but not my 1st choice

Kepler has value to a team in need of a right fielder. I don’t think the Padres are a match.

How about trading Ober and then sending Kepler to Rockies for Marquez?

[Doctor Gast]

3 minutes ago, jorgenswest said:

Kepler has value to a team in need of a right fielder. I don’t think the Padre are a match.

Good job. Frankly I'm not in favor of doing any more trades with SD. So I'm not sure what they need.

[Heiny]

How bout Kepler, Pagan, and a lottery ticket.

[Nashvilletwin]

10 minutes ago, Heiny said:

How bout Kepler, Pagan, and a lottery ticket.

Throw in Gallo too and offer to keep him on our payroll. Lol 

[tony&rodney]

Mahle - straight up.

[Dave The Dastardly]

1 hour ago, Heiny said:

How bout Kepler, Pagan, and a lottery ticket.

Pagan's a non-starter... heh, heh, heh

[Heiny]

58 minutes ago, Dave The Dastardly said:

Pagan's a non-starter... heh, heh, heh

I gues that makes the lottery ticket the headliner.

[Nashvilletwin]

2 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

Mahle - straight up.

I actually like  this trade if we think Kim is someone we’d like long-term.  Highly likely Mahle won’t be here next year. Possible he pitches less than 125 innings this season anyway.  SD might just hit the bid on that. 
 

Having said that, this FO would never pull the trigger on this trade.  They are too invested in their Mahle, Gray, Maeda or bust strategy for ‘23. Too bad.

 

[Nashvilletwin]

How about Farmer and Pagan? For moving on from a young, impatient player, SD gets a quality veteran utility infielder and a relief pitcher who (according to advanced metrics ?) is very, very good.  Our FO can’t be the only FO who thinks Pagan is the second coming, right? The entire league must see his greatness as well. 

[LewFordLives]

No way would I include young pitching. I get you gotta give something to get something, but the Twins have no established starters under contract after this year. They need to keep all of their arms.

[Brock Beauchamp]

3 hours ago, Doctor Gast said:

Good job. Frankly I'm not in favor of doing any more trades with SD. So I'm not sure what they need.

I suspect that at this point, they're looking to stock the farm but who even can predict anything AJ Preller does.

[tony&rodney]

1 hour ago, Nashvilletwin said:

Having said that, this FO would never pull the trigger on this trade.

I think you may be actually be correct but if San Diego was open to this trade and Falvey could not complete such an opportunity, I guess we then would know the direction of the front office which would not be good news.

[h2oface]

I am sure the Twins can give up too much to get him if they want to. They are much better at making trades that don't work out much than signing good free agents. It has been a long time since our farm was highly rated. No need to stop now, 6/7 years in. My bet is they will wait for Lewis at this point. May as well.

[Heistyman]

I've heard the Padres are looking for SP'ers as they are a little nervous about Lugo, Martinez and Morejon on the back end of the rotation.  So they need insurance in case one or more of these guys falter.

[old nurse]

2 hours ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

I suspect that at this point, they're looking to stock the farm but who even can predict anything AJ Preller does.

If he is looking to stock the farm it would be more likely a package of high risk high reward a+ or lower players would be what is traded

[Richie the Rally Goat]

5 hours ago, PseudoSABR said:

Give them Kepler, and throw in Duensing if needed.  

[MABB1959]

I love getting good/great players, but I think it is time to move up most of the 1st round draft picks.  Why trade for a SS when 3 of the first-round draft picks are shortstops. and let them sink or swim in 2023.  Let's see what we get.  I think Tyler Jay is gone or already a bust but not sure.  IMO, the longer we leave in the minors the greater chance they will already be injury prone if or when they get here.  

 

2020	Aaron Sabato	First baseman	University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, North Carolina)	27	[73]
2019	Keoni Cavaco	Shortstop	Eastlake High School (Chula Vista, California)	13	[72]
2018	Trevor Larnach	Outfielder	Oregon State University (Corvallis, Oregon)	20	[71]
2017	Royce Lewis	Shortstop	JSerra Catholic High School (San Juan Capistrano, California)	1	[70]
2017	Brent Rooker	Outfielder	Mississippi State University (Mississippi State, Mississippi)	35
2016	Alex Kirilloff	Outfielder	Plum High School (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)	15	[69]
2015	Tyler Jay	Left-handed pitcher	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Champaign, Illinois)	6	[68]
2014	Nick Gordon	Shortstop	Olympia High School (Orlando, Florida)

[nclahammer]

Not needed.  Farmer will man that shortstop until Lewis is healthy.   Gordon iprovides utility depth in the infield and outfield, unless Royce Lewis is not the answer for the Minnesota Twins at shortstop (which I feel the team thinks he is.) 

[nicksaviking]

One Kyle Farmer is enough for me, I'd not trade assets for a second.

[specialiststeve]

Our history with Korean players is not so good... pass unless cheap.... as in some lottery ticket guys... 

 

[Fatbat]

We have a mostly young team with several SS on the way very soon.  We also have SP depth blossoming this season.  No way the front office is going to do a trade unless they are just given a guy which wont happen.  Royce will be in the lineup by July and with in 3 years, he and Brooks Lee will be our starting middle infielders. 

[Bob Twins Fan Since 61]

My thoughts are Kim would be solid add to the Twins infield.  Especially with rule changes going into effect in 2023.  He made solid improvements in his 2nd year in the U.S.  Excellent fielder with both some power and speed for a middle infielder. I think he could take another step un in 2023.   I would be willing to part with Trevor Larnach to get him.  He is one year younger and has one more of year control than Kim.  But we have a glut of left-handed corner outfielders.  Maybe, a 3-team deal with Miami getting Larnach for SP Trevor Rogers and Rogers going to San Diego for Kim.  Doubt Kepler will get Kim or Rogers.  I would still move Kepler too.  Since the Twins signed Gallo, Kepler almost has to go somewhere.  Go Twins.

[Brock Beauchamp]

1 hour ago, specialiststeve said:

Our history with Korean players is not so good... pass unless cheap.... as in some lottery ticket guys... 

There are so few data points that being concerned about this doesn't make sense.

In fact, unless I'm forgetting something there's all of one data point on this. Byung-Ho Park. And he shared basically zero attributes with Ha-Seong Kim.

[RJA]

On the positive side, he is excellent defensively and would be a plus defender.  On the negative side, like many of the Korean players, he struggles with power pitchers.  He also is not at his best in high leverage situations.  Finally, he has been on a team where he was surrounded by great hitters, so he saw a lot of pitches.  That might not be the case in Minnesota.  On the whole, I think he would be a positive add, but I really dislike trading young guys for a shortstop as we have a couple in the pipeline already and Farmer.