Trade rumors for Kim Ha-seong of the San Diego Padres have been raised once again. This time, the target is the San Francisco Giants, where ‘Grandson of the Wind’ Lee Jeong-hoo belongs.
'MLB.com' published an article titled '5 solutions for the 2024 San Francisco Giants' on the 3rd (Korean time). Through this, we had time to point out the things that San Francisco needs to solve this offseason.
San Francisco won the National League West division title in the 2021 season, beating its rival, the Los Angeles Dodgers, with 107 wins, 55 losses, and a winning percentage of 0.660 in the regular season. Although they bowed to the Dodgers in the postseason, San Francisco tasted the ‘possibility’ of the 2021 season. The problem was to continue this trend, but San Francisco's performance in 2022 was full of disappointment.
Although San Francisco achieved not bad results in the 2022 season with 81 wins, 81 losses, and a winning percentage of 0.500, they were unable to enter the fall stage as they ranked 3rd in the National League West Division and were pushed out of the wild card competition. Afterwards, San Francisco entered the free agent war. San Francisco made very active moves to recruit Aaron Judge (New York Yankees) and Carlos Correa (Minnesota Twins). But the result was 'empty handed'.
San Francisco lost after a battle with the Yankees for the jersey, and reached a contract agreement with Correa, but was forced to cancel the event just hours before the induction ceremony. At the time, a medical test revealed problems with Correa's physical condition, and the contract fell through. In addition, they also experienced the pain of losing ‘ace’ Carlos Rodon, who entered the market through free agent (FA) status.
In the end, San Francisco left with a shabby record of 79 wins, 83 losses, and a winning percentage of 0.488 in the 2023 season, and entered the free agent market again with the goal of strengthening its power. On the 15th of last month, San Francisco succeeded in signing a huge six-year contract worth $113 million (approximately KRW 147.8 billion) with Jeong-hoo Lee, but lost in the battle between Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto (LA Dodgers), the 'biggest fish' they were targeting. did.
Despite having Lee Jeong-hoo, San Francisco is still considered a team that needs to strengthen its power. 'MLB.com' also pointed out this. Through this article, 'MLB.com' identified strengthening the starting lineup and defense as well as reinforcing the shortstop as San Francisco's main tasks. Among these, the most notable items were strengthening defense and reinforcing shortstop.
'MLB.com' said, "San Francisco has tried to prioritize offense over defense in recent years, but that approach backfired, leading to 117 errors. The strength of the pitching staff, which had the best ground ball rate in the majors at 48.7% last year, “San Francisco has taken the first step toward achieving its goal of strengthening its defense by signing Jeong-hoo Lee, but it could pursue other defenders such as four-time Gold Glove winner Matt Chapman,” he said.
And Kim Ha-seong's name was mentioned once again as a shortstop reinforcement. San Francisco currently has a vacancy for its starting shortstop. This is because Brandon Crawford, who has always played in a San Francisco uniform, entered the market after becoming a free agent. It's not very likely that San Francisco and Crawford will reunite. Therefore, San Francisco must strengthen its shortstop this offseason.
The shortstop most frequently linked to San Francisco is definitely Ha-seong Kim. Ha-seong Kim, who wore a San Diego Padres uniform through a 4+1 year contract worth $39 million (approximately 51 billion won) ahead of the 2021 season, will qualify as a free agent after the end of the 2024 season. It is very unlikely that Kim Ha-seong, who became a top player in the Major League last year by becoming the first Asian infielder to win a 'Gold Glove', will exercise the +1 year option.
The reason why Kim Ha-sung's name is often mentioned is that he is approaching free agency, as well as San Diego's 'financial' problems. San Diego invested an astronomical amount of money in the last Stove League and worked hard to strengthen their power. As a result, San Diego is currently suffering from financial problems, including an urgent loan of $50 million (approximately 65.4 billion won) during the season, and is currently struggling to lower the team payroll.
In particular, San Diego was eager to trade Juan Soto, whose annual salary for the 2024 season is expected to be $33 million (about 43.2 billion won) right after the Stove League began. Although he could continue to accompany Soto, his annual salary of $33 million was a huge burden. As a result, San Diego carried out a 2-5 trade involving the New York Yankees and Soto.
