Hyeseong Kim did not dress up his 2026. Asked about the year after Milwaukee swept the Dodgers out of the NLCS, the 27-year-old infielder called it “the most disappointing year of my baseball career,” and he was specific about why.
“The fact that I was only in the Major Leagues for about a month, that is what hurts the most,” Kim said.
That is not an exaggeration. Kim played 43 games for the Dodgers in 2026 and spent 85 games in Triple-A. He got into one NLDS game and watched the rest of October from the bench.
The Numbers Behind the Demotion
Kim hit .259 with a .323 on-base percentage and a .328 slugging mark in 131 big league plate appearances this year, with one home run and five stolen bases. That works out to an 83 wRC+, meaning he was 17 percent below the average major league hitter.
The Triple-A line was not an argument for a promotion either. In 370 plate appearances he hit .262/.330/.345 with three homers and 15 steals, good for a 77 wRC+ against pitching he should have overmatched. A hitter in a month-long slump gets a second look. A hitter who posts the same empty slash line at two different levels does not.
Compare that to 2025, when Kim hit .280 with three home runs and 13 stolen bases in 71 games and looked like one of the better value signings on the roster. The bat went backward, and he knows it. “I believe hitting is the key to surviving in the big leagues,” he said. “I need to become a better hitter.”
What It Means for 2027
Kim signed a three-year, $12.5 million deal in January 2025 that carries club options for 2028 and 2029. So 2027 is the last guaranteed year, and the Dodgers hold every card after it. They do not owe him a roster spot, and they proved this season they are willing to send him down when the 26 spots get tight. How many minor league options he has left is not something the club has spelled out publicly, so treat any confident claim about that with suspicion.
Andrew Friedman, for his part, said the front office still thinks “really highly of the player” and that Kim’s swing “got a little off this year,” with the offseason earmarked for fixing it. That is the standard thing an executive says about a player he has not given up on, and here it tracks. Kim’s speed is real, and his ability to cover second base, shortstop and center field is useful on a team that keeps needing late-inning legs.
None of it matters if he hits like a backup catcher. Los Angeles is about to spend a winter retooling after getting swept out of the NLCS, and a 27-year-old utility man slugging .345 in Triple-A is not high on the list of things a front office protects. Kim’s frustration is fair, and he named the only thing that fixes it.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.