There will be no trade, but Kim Ha-sung will stay in Tampa Bay and will face STL in the opening game on March 27th

Aug 27, 2025

There will be no trade, but Kim Ha-sung will stay in Tampa Bay and will face STL in the opening game on March 27th
Tampa Bay Rays Kim Ha-sung is being tagged out for third base after hitting a left-handed hit in the ninth inning against the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park on the 17th (Korea time) after stealing second base. ImagesYonhap News



There will be no trade, but Kim Ha-sung will stay in Tampa Bay and will face STL in the opening game on March 27th
There is a growing possibility that Ha-sung Kim will remain in Tampa Bay. AP Yonhap News
It was reported that Kim Ha-sung, the Tampa Bay Rays who can exercise his FA rights later this year, will choose to stay.

MLB.com said on the 27th (Korea time) 'Will they opt-out? Should the team opt-in? In an article titled 'Players who are about to make a big decision', he predicted the future of players who could become FA after the end of this season. In other words, players who can terminate the current contract and go to the FA market and teams give up their options next year to become FA.

Kim Ha-sung corresponds to the former. He signed a two-year, $29 million FA contract with Tampa Bay ahead of the opening of spring training in February. He will receive an annual salary of $13 million this year and $16 million next year. But there was a clue. At the end of a season, he put up conditions to opt out. It is the right of Kim Ha-sung to decide whether to execute the contract next year.




There will be no trade, but Kim Ha-sung will stay in Tampa Bay and will face STL in the opening game on March 27th
It is very unlikely that Ha-sung Kim will execute the opt-out after this season. ImagesYonhap News
At the time of the contract, agent Scott Boras is likely to have recommended the FA re-entry. Since it is not possible to sign a long-term contract for more than three to four years, it would have been a strategy to go back to the market after proving his skills in offense and defense this year.

However, given the situation this season, it is unlikely that Kim Ha-sung will exercise the opt-out. Kim Ha-sung, who underwent surgery on his right shoulder after the season last year, was not able to make his Tampa Bay debut until early July because he was devoted to rehabilitation and treatment. In addition, he has shown frequent replacements and irregular playing patterns since then, hurting his shoulder, hamstring, calf and back, and most recently, on the 21st, he was finally diagnosed with low back inflammation and was on the 10-day injured list (IL).

Kim Ha-sung can return on the 31st, but it is difficult to knock on the FA market even if he shows his full ability with a healthy body for the rest of the season. He had a batting average of 0.214 (18 hits in 84 at-bats), two homers, five RBIs, five runs scored, eight walks, 23 strikeouts, six steals, and an OPS of 0.611 in 24 games before the IL registration.




MLB.com said 'Kim Ha-sung played only 24 games this year due to injury. As a result, it is unlikely that the company will give up $16 million next year. Tampa Bay is a club that tries to send out expensive players in the offseason, but it will be difficult to trade Kim Ha-sung, who is often injured, and predicted that Taylor Walls and Carson Williams could see the shortstop, so they could cut ties with Brandon Law and move Kim Ha-sung to second base.

In other words, there is a possibility that Kim Ha-sung, who is difficult to trade anyway, will be moved from a shortstop with a high defensive burden to a second baseman and that young infielders will be raised as shortstop. For Kim Ha-sung, it means that he will play FA '3 Su'.

If Kim Ha-sung plays for Tampa Bay next year, he will play the opening game of the regular season against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium on March 27.








This article was translated by Naver AI translator.