No guarantee that Ha-Seong Kim will be back in Atlanta in 2026

Passion MLB
Crédit: Yahoo Sports

It didn’t take long for Atlanta Braves fans to fall in love with Ha-Seong Kim, who has been on fire since his arrival in Georgia.

However, the question now is whether Braves fans will still be able to sink their teeth into Kim’s prowess in 2026.

Some time ago, almost everyone agreed that the Korean would exercise his sixteen-million-dollar player option for next season, partly because he missed the start of the current campaign while recovering from shoulder surgery, and also had to deal with back, foot, calf and hamstring problems this season.

It made sense, then, for him to choose this avenue and try to rebuild his value next year. But it’s not that simple.

Kim’s agent is the ever-voracious Scott Boras, and next off-season there won’t be many quality shortstops on the market.

Kim will most likely be the best defensive player of the shortstop crop, and if he continues to hit like he’s doing now, the 29-year-old could turn out to be the best player at the number-six position available and end up with a more lucrative, longer contract than his player option.

Perhaps this will prompt Alex Anthopoulos and the Braves to try to retain Kim’s services on the terms of a longer-term contract. Kim’s relationship with Jurickson Profar could also help.

But we must always remain cautious about the chances of a long-term contract extension when Boras is involved.

This content was created with the help of AI.