The San Diego Padres have agreed to a deal with Korean infielder Ha-seong Kim, reports Dennis Lin of The Athletic.
It's a four-year, $25-million deal, according to Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune.
Five other teams, including the Toronto Blue Jays - who reportedly offered Kim at least a five-year contract - were interested in the 25-year-old.
Kim owns a career slash line of .294/.373/.493 with 133 home runs over seven seasons in the KBO. He hit a career-high 30 homers in 138 games last year.
Though Kim has exclusively played shortstop and third base over the last couple of seasons, the Padres plan to use him primarily at second base with Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado already on the roster, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post.
That would likely result in Jake Cronenworth moving from second to left field, but there may be more moves coming from San Diego, Sherman notes.
The Padres will consider trying Jake Cronenworth and even Ha-seong Kim in the outfield, if only to see how it looks. Cronenworth has limited experience beyond the infield. Kim has not officially appeared in the outfield in his pro career. The universal DH, of course, would help.
— Dennis Lin (@dennistlin) December 29, 2020
It's been a busy 24 hours for the Padres. In addition to Kim, they reportedly agreed to acquire star pitchers Yu Darvish and Blake Snell in trades with the Chicago Cubs and Tampa Bay Rays, respectively.
