South Korea’s Hyeseong Kim Officially Posts For MLB Teams
Image credit: Hyeseong Kim (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)
Hyeseong Kim, the 25-year-old all-star second baseman of the Korea Baseball Organization’s Kiwoom Heroes, has officially been posted, making him eligible to sign with an MLB club in the next 30 days.
Because Kim is 25 and has seven years of KBO experience, he’s treated as a foreign professional. As such, he can sign a MLB free agent contract as long as an MLB team also pays the posting fees to Kim’s KBO club, which is a percentage of his contract (20% for the first $25 million and then decreasing increments for contracts that go beyond that).
Kim was ninth on Baseball America’s 2023 World Baseball Classic Top 10 Prospects ranking of the top players unaffiliated with MLB teams. Among South Korean players, he ranked third.
Kim was teammates with Padres shortstop Ha-Seong Kim before Ha-Seong came to the U.S. The younger Kim has excellent bat-to-ball skills, but he’s also never shown much power. He has just 37 home runs in nearly 1,000 games in the KBO, and his career high in home runs is 11, set in 2024. Kim is a plus defender at second base and can play shortstop in a pinch. He has won the KBO equivalent of the Gold Glove twice at second base.
Kim has the speed to play in the outfield and he played some left field earlier in his KBO career, but his best fit is at second base.
A team landing Kim will likely view him as a top or bottom-of-the-order hitter who will hit for average and make plenty of contact from the left side, but there are concerns his lack of power could limit his impact.
Kim is eligible to sign up to Jan. 3.
