Ha-Seong Kim Is Having the Actual Worst Season in the History of Baseball
The fact the Atlanta Braves are any good at all this season, let alone atop the NL East by 6.5 games, is pretty remarkable. Jurickson Profar was handed his second PED suspension in as many years, this time for the entire season. The pitching staff has been decimated by injuries yet again.
And then there's Ha-Seong Kim.
Kim had just inked his one-year, $20 million to fill the black hole that has been Atlanta's shortstop position since Dansby Swanson's departure when he slipped on a patch of ice and tore a ligament in his finger in January. So he had surgery which sidelined him until May, when he made his debut in what has the potential to become the worst offensive season of Major League Baseball any position player has ever played.
Kim's .066 batting average is the lowest of any position player in the history of the game with at least 85 plate appearances. He is the only player in the live ball era with a batting average under .100 and zero extra-base hits. His five total bases are the fewest ever, rivaled only by Pop Smith of the 1881 Worcester Ruby Legs — and even Pop got to seven, something I'm not sure we'll see from Kim.
It's not only the worst season in baseball history, it has to be the worst use of $20 million in human history.
The worst part is Kim is now back from a stint on the injured list after re-aggravating his surgically repaired finger and he's just sitting on the bench. The Braves got rid of Jorge Mateo upon Kim's return because Jim Jarvis had done a serviceable job as the starting shortstop for a few weeks. But since then, Jarvis is 2-28 with a -55 wRC+ while Mateo hits home runs for the Tampa Bay Rays and Kim just sits in the dugout ruminating on a season of futility no player has ever equaled in the 150-year history of baseball.
The good news is Kim's contract will be done as soon as the regular season concludes, because there's surely no way he makes Atlanta's postseason roster. The bad news is the Braves will go into 2027 looking for yet another solution to avoid a fifth consecutive year of atrocious shortstop production.
What a season.