Saturday afternoon, Padres shortstop Ha-Seong Kim declined his portion of the $8 million mutual option in his contract, making him part of the the free agency class for the 2024-25 offseason. I’ll cut right to the chase — the Tigers should be keeping a close eye on Kim’s market in the coming months. He’s a near-perfectfor what this team needs in terms of infield configuration, offensive talent, and organizational philosophy.
When Kim first came stateside in 2021, the then 25-year old was advertised as a physically gifted defensive star with first-rate smarts at the plate. He’d established himself as a productive player in his home country of Korea as a teenager and only got better and better.