Ha-Seong Kim may be forcing his way back into the Braves’ picture.
After an ugly day all around for Atlanta, Kim stood out as the one real bright spot. AJ Smith-Shawver struggled, Blake Burkhalter’s MLB debut didn’t inspire much confidence, and the top of the Braves’ order came up short with runners in scoring position. But Kim looked far more like himself at shortstop, flashing on defense and stacking up three hits, each one hit hard at more than 100 MPH.
That surge has changed the conversation around him. Kim now has five hits in his last 13 at-bats, the same total he managed over his first 86 at-bats of the season. He’s also finally batting above .100, with an OPS over .300.
That’s not exactly a clean bill of health for a season at the plate, and the source of the joke remains obvious: he could still be in the running for the worst baseball player to ever make $20 million in a season. Even so, there’s at least a path for him to matter over the final stretch.
The Braves don’t have a locked-in answer in left field, either. Mauricio Dubon can move back to the outfield, and Lane Thomas and Mike Yastrzemski haven’t given the club much there. Yastrzemski is hitting just .135 over his last 15 games, while Thomas has also been below the Mendoza Line since Atlanta acquired him before the trade deadline.
If Kim keeps producing more than those options, the Braves have a straightforward reason to keep playing him. With the offense already struggling to score, the hotter bat should win out.
It would be a strange twist, given how little Kim offered for most of the season. But if he ends up helping Atlanta chase a division title or make a run in October, nobody around the Braves will spend much time dwelling on the first five months.
In Other News...
Which Braves Prospects Are Suddenly Closest To Atlanta
The Braves farm system has started to feel a little more immediate, with several of the organizations top young arms and bats moving into the part of their development where Atlanta can realistically start mapping out timelines. Owen Murphy, John Gil and Eric Hartman are among the prospects drawing the most attention right now, not just because of their talent, but because of the way their current minor league performances are nudging them closer to the big-league conversation.
For a club that always has one eye on the future, that matters because the next wave may arrive sooner than the usual wait-and-see approach suggests. The evaluation here is still built on minor league production and projection rather than any firm major league plans, but it does give Braves fans a clearer sense of which names could matter in the near term and which ones are shaping up as longer-view bets. [Read more 🡒]
Braves Division Lead Faces A New Test In Phillies Showdown
The Phillies have tightened the NL East race again, moving to 79-61 and trimming the gap behind Atlanta to four games as the two clubs head into a pivotal stretch. Philadelphia now gets a four-game set at home before the rivals meet again for three more in Atlanta, giving this week and the next one the feel of a division checkpoint rather than a routine September series.
One of the more interesting additions for Philadelphia has been Luis Arrez, who arrived Aug. 3 and has already changed the look of the lineup in the way Kyle Schwarber described. Schwarber pointed to Arrezs low-strikeout, high-contact style as a welcome layer of diversity, and that extra approach could matter in a matchup where every at-bat starts to carry a little more weight. [Read more 🡒]
Braves Rotation Shuffle Puts Bryce Elder In An Awkward Spot
The Braves are making another adjustment to their rotation as they prepare for their next meeting with the Phillies, with Grant Holmes set to take the ball instead of Bryce Elder. It is the latest sign that Atlanta is trying to thread the needle between getting more out of the matchup and keeping its pitching staff in a workable rhythm, especially after Holmes rain-shortened outing and Elders recent struggles.
Elder now finds himself in an awkward spot, waiting while the Braves sort through how best to handle him and manage his rest. The timing matters, too, because the series offers Atlanta a chance to tighten things up against a division rival, and every pitching decision carries a little more weight when the margin for error feels thin. [Read more 🡒]