Hyeseong Kim trying to prove himself to Dodgers, stay in MLB

Hyeseong Kim tried to be specific about the feeling.

“I wouldn’t say I was disappointed,” the Dodgers infielder said through his interpreter, Dean Kim, earlier this week. 

“But,” he acknowledged in an interview with The California Post, “I was a little down.”

That was four weeks ago, when the Dodgers informed Kim that –– for the second-straight season since joining the team –– he was being demoted to triple-A to begin the year.

At the time, the move was somewhat of a surprise, with the Dodgers picking prospect Alex Freeland for a part-time second base job over their $12.5 million signing out of South Korea.

All spring, Kim had repeatedly stated his goal of making the opening day roster, encouraged by an offseason in which he and the Dodgers felt he had made strides with his revamped swing.

But then came the World Baseball Classic, when Kim left camp and reverted back to bad, old habits at the plate during his time with Team South Korea.

It led to a conversation with Dodgers coaches and front office staff in the days leading up to the start of the season, in which Kim was informed he was going to triple-A Oklahoma City in order to get consistent at-bats amid his ongoing swing change.

“Obviously, it’s everyone’s dream to play in the major leagues,” said Kim, whose demotion was such big news among Korean baseball fans that he apologized to them in an interview after arriving in OKC for the start of the year.

Still, he reiterated this week, the news left him feeling more motivation than disappointment.

“When we had the meeting with the front office and coaches, I knew exactly what I needed to work on,” he said. “I just felt like I needed to work harder to fix those problems.”

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That’s the mindset that has endeared Kim to the Dodgers, even amid a choppier-than-expected transition to the big leagues. It’s what helped him display immediate progress in his return to triple-A (where he went 9-for-26 while cutting down on his strikeout rate), then earn a call-up back to the majors when Mookie Betts suffered an oblique strain a couple weeks into the season.

Now, the 27-year-old isn’t just back on the club’s MLB roster, but is making almost daily contributions to a Dodgers team off to the best start in baseball.

“I always say it, or I always think it,” manager Dave Roberts said. “When he plays, he always does something to help the team win. He really does. It’s good he’s getting some runway.”

Indeed, Kim has capitalized on the playing time he’s received lately, entering Friday off to a 5-for-18 start since being recalled that includes a home run, two extra-base hits, four walks and already a highlight reel’s worth of standout defensive plays at shortstop.

It hasn’t been a flawless couple weeks. He still has eight strikeouts in eight games. He still plays sparingly against left-handed pitching. He was also at fault for the worst ABS challenge by any Dodgers player so far this year.

But his hope is that, once Betts’ return from the injured list forces the Dodgers to make another difficult roster decision, the totality of his impact will lead to a different result this time around.

“I’m happy for sure, just being able to play at the major league level. It’s obviously a lot of fun,” he said. “And I also want to stay at the major league level. And by doing that, I (am) trying to show (it) with my actions and how I go about my day.”

Kim’s best moment came on Wednesday night, when he helped the Dodgers complete a sweep of the New York Mets by hitting a two-run home run off former All-Star right-hander Clay Holmes.

It was the kind of swing the Dodgers have long envisioned from the 5-foot-10, 175-pound speedster during a two-year-long process to remake his hitting mechanics.

“It looks good,” Roberts said of Kim’s swing, drawing a contrast to how “out of sync” he looked after rejoining the team following a poor WBC performance. “I think he’s into the ground much better. I think the swing decisions are better mechanically. It looks great. So really proud of the work.”

Kim, in typical fashion, was less complimentary of himself.

While the long ball was nice, he said, “after that, I struck out three times, so I’m a little down on myself.”

Such is the growth process Kim is still working through –– remaining an unfinished product, but one who has nonetheless found other ways to produce.

“I do believe (there is) a little bit of progress, for sure, but little by little at times,” he said. “I don’t think it’s completely done yet, so I’ll keep working hard and make those changes as the season goes on.”

A season, he hopes, he spends the rest of at the big-league level.