This year when Padres fans chant his name as he bats — "Ha-Seong-Kim! Ha-Seong-Kim!" — it feels less like they're providing moral support.
It's a chant of exclamation, not only exhortation.
Ha-Seong Kim can hit.
A year ago, he couldn't.
As a result, the Padres have weathered the season-long absence of Fernando Tatis Jr. better than could've been expected. When Tatis Jr., rejoins them early next season, it won't be surprising if he reports to center field. Kim has made a good case to stay at shortstop, where he's steadier than Tatis. Among all shortstops, he ranks ninth in win shares this year, per FanGraphs.com, meaning that, by one measure that some MLB teams regard as a useful form of shorthand, his all-around performance rates top-third at the position.
While it's far too soon to label Kim an established hitter — pitchers will devise counters to this year's successful adjustments — he has held his own through five months.
He's raised his batting average from last year's .202 to .258 entering Monday's game in San Francisco. Along with seven home runs, 24 doubles, three triples and a solid walk rate, he sports an adjusted on-base plus slugging percentage that's nine percent above league average, per Baseball-Reference.com.
He's loose in the batter's box. He's ready to swing the bat. Not a big-muscled grooved swinger, Kim takes the bat to the ball.
For example, in Saturday's game at Kansas City, where his promotion into the leadoff spot coincided with the offense's mini-surge, he fouled off an outside knuckle-curveball. Then he fouled off a two-strike fastball (100 mph) near his shins. Defying that attempt to speed up his bat, he served an outside slider for a single to right field.
The driver to Kim's success?
He's caught up with the fastball.
A year ago, when he faced hotter pitches than he typically saw across seven seasons in South Korea, he batted .231 with a meager .369 slugging percentage against fastballs.
This year, the numbers are .273 and .414. And, he's slashed his fastball whiff rate from 30.5 to 17.6 percent.
Digging deeper into the right-hander's success, he's put more air under his launches, raised his walk rate and swung at fewer first pitches.
Defensively, where Hall of Famer Alan Trammell said the mental workload left him exhausted after most games, the 5-foot-9, 168-pound Kim has maintained his reliable form across 95 starts. He has saved seven runs above MLB's 2022 average, per The Fielding Bible.
While a few other Padres shortstops had season that were more dazzling, beginning with Ozzie Smith recording 621 assists in 1980 — still a major-league record — it's doubtful any other backup shortstop rescued the Padres to a greater extent.
In Tatis, the 26-year-old Kim has replaced the third-ranked vote-getter in last year's National League balloting for the MVP award. If not for Kim's fine season at a premium defensive spot, the Padres' odds of claiming the newly added third wild card — a race where they led Milwaukee by a game-and-half entering this week — would be taller.
The Padres' belief in Kim influenced their decision to include their top shortstop prospect, CJ Abrams, in the recent trade that brought All-Star right-fielder Juan Soto and first-baseman Josh Bell.
He's fun to watch, too.
At shortstop, he blends sound actions with a flair for acrobatic plays. He doesn't seem to get bored.
As a hitter, he'll smack the first pitch (batting .366 and slugging .659, better than the team rates of .343 and .516).
Kim dropped a sacrifice bunt Saturday that, despite its deft placement, likely prompted a thumbs down from analytics experts. Empirical proofs that show that outs, in fact, are precious, drive the formidable anti-bunt logic.
Even so, the third-inning bunt ensured Kim wouldn't hit into his ninth double play (third on the team). The team's best hitters, Soto and Manny Machado, followed with one-out singles, tying the game 3-3. When Soto scored on Brandon Drury's single, the Padres had their first lead. They held it for a 4-3 victory. It was Kim's first sacrifice of the season, a sign he'd put considerable thought into it.
Though Kim's headfirst slide into first base after bunting wasn't the best decision, he has rewarded the increased trust of manager Bob Melvin.
Monday, coming off the rest day Melvin gave him, Kim made his third straight start and seventh overall in the leadoff spot. He batted first only once last year and spent most of this season in the lineup's bottom third.
If his .333 on-base percentage doesn't scream table-setter, Kim has shown he's dangerous with runners in scoring position by batting .298 with eight doubles and a homer this year. The universal DH has made a No. 1's hitters RBI ability more important, privileging Kim over the recent versions of Jurickson Profar and Trent Grisham.
The Padres were desperate for a feel-good story at shortstop, not only because of Tatis' self-inflicted setbacks but because their former prospect Trea Turner continues to soar, this time with the Dodgers, no less.
The shortstop Padres fans love to cheer has cheered them up.
