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New York Times
2 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Casey Schmitt contributes as Giants' win streak reaches seven games
DENVER — Tristan Beck received the most thankless assignment you can give to a major-league reliever: enter a game at Coors Field trailing by a run and try to keep it close. Three batters in, Beck was already pitching from his heels. He had allowed one run and only recorded a second out because the Colorado Rockies ran their way into it. When he threw a breaking ball that actually moved according to its designs, the Rockies' Keston Hiura snuck his barrel to it and hit a hard grounder that hugged the third-base line. Beck whirled around, saw the ball skipping over the bag and assumed his inning was becoming a war of attrition. Advertisement That's when third baseman Casey Schmitt made a lunging grab while staying on his feet. As his momentum carried him into foul territory, he flung a throw across his body that arrived true, in time and without so much as a hop to first baseman Jerar Encarnacion. 'I gotta admit it,' Beck said. 'I had to double-check who that was back there.' It will be no easy feat for the Giants to replace any element of Matt Chapman's game while he recovers from a sprained right hand. He's one of the league's smartest and tidiest baserunners. He is their leading home run hitter. And, of course, he's a five-time Gold Glove winner whose defensive skills annually account for a significant portion of his Wins Above Replacement. Chapman's defense should be the most irreplaceable aspect of his game. Instead, it might be the area where the Giants have the most coverage. Schmitt, a gifted defender, turned heads with his sparkling play in the fifth inning. Then he made contributions to a pair of late rallies as the Giants scored four runs in the eighth inning and three more in the ninth while storming to a 10-7 victory over the Rockies Wednesday night. It was the Giants' 20th come-from-behind win of the season. 'notha comeback in Colorado! — SFGiants (@SFGiants) June 12, 2025 Schmitt drew an eight-pitch walk in the eighth that set up Mike Yastrzemski's tying, two-run double. Then Schmitt scored the tiebreaking run following a replay reversal when he sprinted home on Tyler Fitzgerald's safety squeeze and slid a hand across the plate barely ahead of the tag. At that point, the Giants were set up to win their seventh consecutive game by a one-run margin, which would have matched the 1927 Chicago Cubs for the longest streak in major-league history. But it's a good thing they didn't stop there. They scored three more in the ninth and Schmitt knocked in one of them with a single up the middle. Advertisement Camilo Doval needed the extra cushion in the bottom of the ninth. He served up a solo home run to Hunter Goodman and the Rockies brought the tying run to the plate before Orlando Arcia tapped to the mound to end it. The streak of one-run victories might be over, but the winning habit continues. The Giants are a season-best 12 games over .500, just a half-game behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West, and they will have a theoretical chance to dislodge their archrivals when they arrive at Chavez Ravine this weekend to begin a three-game series. The three-run victory didn't release much pressure, though. 'Well, it still came down to the last pitch,' Giants manager Bob Melvin said. 'So I won't necessarily say this was a laugher.' Every pitch seems to matter more at Coors Field, where attrition is a way of life. Schmitt's defensive play had the underrated impact of saving Beck from throwing more pitches in the fifth inning, which otherwise might have prevented him from completing the sixth and seventh. The Giants dealt with the opposite effect earlier in the game when a missed-catch error on Encarnacion compounded a labor-intensive third inning for Robbie Ray, in which the left-hander was charged with four runs (two earned) and threw 34 pitches. 'It just drains you,' said Ray, who was lifted after throwing 93 pitches in four innings. 'More than at normal altitude. Any time you have to throw that many pitches in an inning, regardless of where you are, it's tough. But when you're here, it just takes more out of you.' So when a defensive gem like Schmitt's ends an inning here and allows everyone to get back to the dugout? 'Oh, a hundred percent, it's huge,' Beck said. 'Any pitcher will tell you what it's like here. Any chance you get to have a ball fielded and make a play like that, it's so important. That's one of the better plays I've seen behind me in my career. We all knew Casey could do that. Obviously, we're a little used to it with Chappy over there on the regular. But we know Casey can, too.' What a play by Casey Schmitt 🤯 — SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) June 12, 2025 Schmitt became the best defensive infielder in the Giants' farm system from the moment the club took him in the second round of the 2020 draft out of San Diego State. But every avenue to playing time on the left side of the infield appeared impassable at the end of last year when the Giants agreed to a six-year, $151 million extension with Chapman and then signed shortstop Willy Adames to a seven-year, $182 million free-agent contract. Both Chapman and Adames pride themselves on playing 150-plus games and have to be cajoled into taking a day off. When spring training began, it was unclear what future Schmitt might have in the organization. Advertisement Schmitt made the opening day roster anyway, in a utility role. Then he added to his value when he turned himself into an above-average first baseman seemingly overnight. Now he's expected to receive an extended run of playing time while Chapman recovers — a process that is likely to extend into July. Even though Schmitt acknowledged that he is merely holding down the fort at third base, there's plenty more at stake for him. It's not impossible to envision Schmitt parlaying this opportunity into unseating Fitzgerald, who is in the midst of an inconsistent season at the plate and ran into another out on the basepaths on Wednesday. While Fitzgerald has played a credible second base, he cannot match Schmitt's arm strength or tagging skills, either. If Schmitt can combine better situational at-bats with his defense, then the Giants will be tempted to find a way to keep him in the lineup even after Chapman returns. 'That was huge, (fouling off) breaking ball after breaking ball and taking a fastball on the last pitch,' said Melvin, describing Schmitt's walk against right-hander Tyler Kinley in the eighth. 'It's a great opportunity for him. He's got a real opportunity to do some good things while Chappy is out. We're lucky to have him.' Does it help Schmitt to relax knowing he'll be in the lineup virtually every day for at least a couple weeks? 'I guess so, but I know my role,' he said. 'We all can't wait for (Chapman) to come back to doing his thing here. We're counting down the days.' The Giants also have been counting the days until Adames began to make an impact at the plate following two slow and challenging months. Perhaps these first two games in Denver will be the start of something. Adames hit a home run for the second consecutive game and finished a triple short of the cycle, singling to ignite the four-run rally in the eighth and doubling to help set up the three-run ninth. Advertisement His two-run home run gave the Giants a quick lead in the first inning. He also contributed a sacrifice fly. Arcia took away a potential fourth hit at third base in the fifth. Whether the margin of victory was one run or three, the Giants continued to do just enough to cover up their mistakes. Encarnacion's error in the third might have been the most glaring, but the coaching staff also blundered when Melvin failed to signal in time for a replay challenge on a blown call that ended the seventh inning. It was the second mea culpa of the series for Melvin, who acknowledged on Tuesday that he shouldn't have sent reliever Spencer Bivens out for a third inning. Maybe it didn't feel like the Giants had breathing room when Doval recorded the final out, but the three-run margin meant that the Giants would not equal the all-time one-run margin of victory record. The Cubs set that mark in a season in which they added a new upper deck above the third base stands at Wrigley Field (one year after the name had been changed from Cubs Park) and became the first National League team to draw 1 million fans. The seventh of those one-run triumphs came June 12, 1927, against the New York Giants when Charlie Root retired Rogers Hornsby to seal a 7-6 victory and delight an overflow crowd that spilled onto the grass and required the use of a boundary rope in the outfield. How long ago did the Cubs fashion that streak? The headline in the New York Times the next morning was: 'New York in Holiday Mood Greets Lindbergh Today' It astounded the nation when Charles Lindbergh climbed into the cockpit of the Spirit of St. Louis and crossed the Atlantic. Bet he couldn't throw a scoreless relief inning at Coors Field, though.
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The Centrist WelcomeFest Was Everything That's Wrong With the Democratic Party
Inside a cavernous, neon-lit ballroom in the bowels of a joyless Washington D.C. hotel, Carly Simon blasts from the speakers in an effort drown out the chants of 'Free, Free Palestine' from protesters who've crashed a conversation with Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) — the gay, Black, self-described Zionist representing one of the most Democratic districts in the country. Liam Kerr, co-founder of the centrist-supporting political action committee Welcome PAC — decked out in a West Virginia Mountaineers jersey with senator-turned-lobbyist Joe Manchin's name emblazoned across his back — bodies out a bespectacled, man-bunned individual trying to film the scuffle. It would have been a particularly crude piece of performance art depicting the Democratic Party in its present incarnation, but unfortunately, it was real. Organizers of WelcomeFest, an event billed as 'the largest public gathering of centrists,' were expecting disruptions when they convened in D.C. on Thursday — you could even say they welcomed them. Earlier that day, as Kerr kicked off the festivities, he drew a contrast between his own apparel and a t-shirt he told the crowd organizers had on hand for any protesters who might show up. The tee featured a depiction of Babydog, the beloved bulldog belonging to Jim Justice, the West Virginia Republican who replaced Manchin in the U.S. Senate this year, and his slogan, 'Delivering Justice for West Virginia.' 'I am wearing a jersey of someone who stepped on the West Virginia campus 50 years ago on a football scholarship, who is the number one-rated 'Wins Above Replacement' candidate,' Kerr told the crowd of his Manchin jersey. (Wins Above Replacement, or WAR, is a sports statistic that measures a certain player's contributions to their team. More on that later.) The Justice t-shirt was meant to send a message to progressive-minded: If you're not with us, you're against us. Or, as Kerr put it even more bluntly, 'The choice is Jim Justice or Joe Manchin.' Manchin's dark money group, Americans Together, was, incidentally, one of the sponsors of the event. Over the course of the afternoon, speakers at WelcomeFest offered their diagnosis for what ails the Democratic Party, which might be summed up as: too much democracy. Too many people making too many demands of their elected representatives. Onstage, speakers used the shorthand 'The Groups' when discussing this phenomenon. Speaker after speaker blamed 'The Groups' for Democrats' failure to win elections and to govern effectively when they did win them. (Names of the specific Groups in question were rarely invoked on stage, but a recent New York Times op-ed by one of the day's speakers, Democratic operative Adam Jentleson, called out the American Civil Liberties Union, the Sunrise Movement, the Working Families Party, and Justice Democrats as some of the culprits responsible, in his view, for browbeating Democratic candidates into adopting unpopular positions in primaries that Republicans could weaponize against them in a general election.) The blogger Matthew Yglesias flogged this thesis most aggressively in his presentation. To illustrate his point that 'Bad Groups create bad incentives for Democrats,' Yglesias pointed to Democrats' after a Maryland man was illegally renditioned to a Central American supermax prison by accident — some Democrats have traveled to El Salvador to seek Kilmar Abrego Garcia's release and return to the U.S. Besides this being the only moral position one can take on the question of whether the government should be allowed to extrajudicially seize individuals, ship them off to a foreign jail, and refuse to bring them back when ordered by the courts, Yglesias appears to be wrong about this being a politically dangerous position for Democrats to stake out: Media coverage of this case, kept alive by Democrats who continued to raise awareness about it, damaged Donald Trump's image, pollster G. Elliott Morris points out. Approval for Trump's immigration agenda nosedived during the height of the furor over Abrego Garcia's wrongful seizure. While speakers at WelcomeFest generally seemed to agree The Groups' influence was to blame for Democrats' failures, no one seemed to offer much in the way of a contrasting vision for what the party's orienting principle ought to be going forward. Abundance, the airport book that some Dems appear determined to adopt as a policy platform, got only brief attention at the WelcomeFest. Instead of a mission or any one overarching vision, there only seemed to be consensus on the fact that Democrats need to start winning again, by whatever means necessary. The political analyst Lakshya Jain urged reorienting party recruitment efforts to focus on candidates with high 'Wins Above Replacement' statistics. The concept will be familiar to anyone who has read Moneyball, Michael Lewis' book about how the Oakland A's used sabermetrics to identify and recruit undervalued players. Jain's model compares a generic match-up in a particular district with the actual results in an effort to evaluate who overperformed or underperformed expectations for their particular race. To illustrate this point, Jain compared the results of progressive New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's race with that of Janelle Stelson, a candidate who ran in Pennsylvania's 10th district. In his model, AOC, who won her race and outperformed Kamala Harris by six points, underperformed a generic race in her district by two points; Stelson, who lost by one point and outran Harris by four points, overperformed a generic Democrat by nine points. Jain's pitch was that, in the current political environment, which he says is D+6, Democrats have a real opportunity to seize legislative majorities if they focus their efforts on recruiting candidates with high WAR scores — the catch is that these candidates might be unpalatable to The Groups and other party faithful. 'Being very blunt, if we run candidates that D.C. finds appealing, we're probably going to lose. There is an inverse correlation between what you guys all find appealing and what the median voter finds appealing,' Jain told the room. He brought up Blue Dog Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), who spoke on a panel with Yglesias and Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) and Adam Gray (D-Calif.). 'A lot of you may say you find some of Jared Golden's votes to be annoying for a Democrat,' Jain said. 'Well, guess what? The choice isn't between Jared Golden and AOC. The choice is between Jared Golden and Paul LePage. So who would you rather have?' It was an echo of Kerr's opening remarks — 'The choice is Jim Justice or Joe Manchin' — and it's a real question that gets at the heart of Democrats' present predicament. Do Democrats — or Americans writ large — need more candidates in the mold of Joe Manchin, the man single-handedly responsible for torpedoing Democrats' expanded child tax credit, a program that had lifted 2.1 million children out of poverty? Unappealing as the choice is, there's also a high probability that it is a false binary too: Jain claimed in his presentation, 'The base will vote for you anyway… Don't worry about liberal defections.' But if the results of the 2024 election have indicated anything, it's that attitude — the attitude that was also adopted by the Harris campaign — is a losing one: We know that demoralized Democratic-leaning voters who stayed home decided the election. More from Rolling Stone 'We Don't Want Them': Trump Cracks Down on Foreign Nationals Coming to America Sean Penn Criticizes Plan to Remove Harvey Milk's Name From Navy Ship Late-Night Hosts Take Aim at Trump's Feud With Musk: 'Blew Up Faster Than a SpaceX Rocket' Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
CBC
30-04-2025
- Sport
- CBC
'Unbelievable play': Blue Jays' Varsho makes stunning, backhanded catch in season debut
Daulton Varsho and his Gold Glove defence are back in the Toronto Blue Jays' outfield. Hours after being activated off the injured list, Varsho turned in a highlight-reel catch at the base of the wall in centre-field in his season debut. Varsho was retreating to the wall in centre on a one-out drive by Boston's Jarren Duran in the fourth inning of Tuesday's night 10-2 loss to Boston when he lost his balance as he reached the warning track, falling and rolling over. Able to get back up on one knee, and with his back turned to home plate, Varsho had the presence of mind to stick out his glove and make a remarkable catch. "When I fell, I was like, 'Oh boy, it's going to be somewhat near me,"' Varsho said. "I saw it kind of really quick and kind of stuck my glove out." Blue Jays manager John Schneider was initially worried the tumble might damage Varsho's right shoulder, which he had surgery on last September. Varsho said he was fine. Boston's Alex Bregman called it "one of the best catches I've ever seen in my life." "I wish he wouldn't have [caught it] because it would have been a nice triple for Jarren, but you've got to tip your hat to him there," Bregman said. "That was an unbelievable play." Varsho won his first Gold Glove award with Toronto last season, when he hit .214 with 18 homers and 58 runs batted in. The 28-year-old missed the start of this season while recovering from surgery. He's a career .225 hitter with a .414 slugging percentage and 79 homers over five seasons in Arizona and Toronto. Beloved in clubhouse He was second on Toronto in Wins Above Replacement last year, a statistic that attempts to measure a player's overall impact on a team including defence. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. led the Blue Jays with a 6.2 WAR and Varsho was 5.0. The 28-year-old former catcher has become one of the most beloved players in Toronto's clubhouse. "Everybody was really happy," said Varsho on returning to Rogers Centre. "Got to see a couple guys yesterday, which was good. "Happy to be back after a long rehab process." Also Tuesday, the Blue Jays activated right-hander Casey Lawrence a day after claiming him off waivers from Seattle. Right-hander Paxton Schultz and infielder Will Wagner were optioned to triple-A Buffalo. Schneider said right-handed reliever Erik Swanson (carpal tunnel syndrome) would pitch for the single-A Dunedin Blue Jays later Tuesday. Righty Ryan Burr (right shoulder inflammation) faced live batters earlier in the day/ Three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer threw off the mound Tuesday for the second time as he works toward a return from thumb inflammation.
Global News
30-04-2025
- Sport
- Global News
Varsho makes highlight-reel catch in return
TORONTO – Daulton Varsho was tracking a deep fly ball off Jarren Duran's bat near the warning track at Rogers Centre when he tried to turn to his right and ended up tripping over his own feet. 'I said a profanity word in my head,' laughed Varsho afterwards. 'But then I was like, 'Alright, where's the ball?' and just tried to do everything I can to try and catch it.' Varsho managed to get up on one knee, glance over his shoulder, and catch the ball with his back to home plate for a highlight-reel catch, one of the few bright spots in the Toronto Blue Jays' 10-2 loss to the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday. Varsho said that he thought Duran's fly ball was going to fall for a triple, embarrassing the Gold Glove outfielder in his season debut after a long recovery following shoulder surgery last September. Story continues below advertisement 'You work on it all the time, taking your eyes off the ball,' said Varsho. 'When I fell, I was like, 'oh boy, it's gonna be somewhat near me, but I saw it kind of really quick, and kind of stuck out my glove.' Varsho was activated off the 10-day injured list by the Blue Jays just hours before Toronto opened its three-game series with Boston. It was Varsho's first game of the season after starting the year on the IL. 'Just be myself,' Varsho said before the three-game series opener on what his expectations were heading into the game. 'Don't try to do too much and just be yourself and go out there and play.' Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy When Varsho does that, he's been very effective. Varsho hit .214 with 18 home runs and 58 runs batted in last season. His defensive prowess is where he has the biggest impact, however, earning his first-ever Gold Glove last season. Story continues below advertisement He was second on Toronto in Wins Above Replacement last year, a statistic that attempts to measure a player's overall impact on a team including defence. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., led the Blue Jays with a 6.2 WAR and Varsho was 5.0. His highlight-reel catch on Duran underscored that. 'That was incredible. That was one of the best catches I've ever seen in my life,' said Boston slugger Alex Bregman. 'I wish he wouldn't have because it would have been a nice triple for Jarren, but you've got to tip your hat to him there. 'That was an unbelievable play.' Varsho recently completed a rehab assignment with the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons. Tuesday's game was the start of his third season in Toronto after he was traded by the Arizona Diamondbacks to the Blue Jays in December 2022 for Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Gabriel Moreno. He's a career .225 hitter with a .414 slugging percentage and 79 home runs over five seasons in Arizona and Toronto. 'It's one of those things where you're not surprised, but it's always a surprise,' said Toronto starter Bowden Francis, who had already been pulled from the game. 'He's incredible out there.' Blue Jays manager John Schneider had Varsho bat sixth. Varsho was 0 for 3 on Tuesday but drew a walk and felt optimistic about his performance at the plate. Story continues below advertisement 'For me, it's just like, 'OK let's shrink the zone, get a good pitch to hit,'' said Varsho. 'Trust in that process. Shrink the zone, get my pitch in the middle, and do damage.' Varsho's return also meant that veteran outfielder George Springer would have a relatively light evening as designated hitter instead of filling in for Varsho in centre. It's expected Springer will split time in right field with Anthony Santander going forward. 'It puts George in a better mood. I think he's happier than Varsh,' joked Schneider pre-game. 'I think everyone knows (Varsho), likes him and appreciates his game. 'It makes your lineup better, it makes your defence better, just having his personality here is huge.' Toronto also activated right-handed pitcher Casey Lawrence a day after claiming him off waivers from Seattle. Right-hander Paxton Schultz and infielder Will Wagner were optioned to Buffalo in corresponding moves. Schneider said that right-handed reliever Erik Swanson (carpal tunnel syndrome) would pitch for the Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays later Tuesday. Righty Ryan Burr (right shoulder inflammation) faced live batters earlier in the day. Surefire Hall of Famer righty Max Scherzer (thumb) threw off the mound again and right-handed reliever Nick Sandlin (right lat strain) still has no timeline for his return. This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 29, 2025. Story continues below advertisement
NBC Sports
29-01-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Rays sign Ha-Seong Kim to two-year deal: Fantasy upside, potential risks for veteran infielder
Patrick Mahomes is undefeated in his career against Vic Fangio, and Chris Simms and Ahmed Fareed break down the key areas for Philadelphia's defense to make life difficult for the Chiefs The Rays aren't known as a team that spends big on the open market, but they've been known to pounce when opportunity presents itself. They did just that Wednesday. Rays, INF Ha-Seong Kim reportedly agree to two-year deal, per multiple reports including @MLBNetwork insider @JonHeyman. Jeff Passan reports that it's a two-year, $29 million contract for Kim, and that he can opt out of the contract after the 2025 season. Let's take a look at what Kim brings to the Rays, and whether or not it'll translate into fantasy success going forward. How much success has Kim had with the bat in his MLB career? Kim joined the Padres in 2021 after seven seasons in the Korea Baseball Organization, and he was one of the best players in the KBO before signing with San Diego with a career slash of .294/.373/.493 along 133 homers; 30 of those coming in his final season with the Kiwoom Heroes. His rookie season didn't go very well with the bat -- more on that in a second -- with a .602 OPS over 117 games, but he improved that OPS to .708 in his second campaign. Kim's best season by far in the majors was in 2023, however. He slashed .260/.351/.398 while hitting 17 homers, driving in 60 runs, and -- most importantly to fantasy managers -- stole 38 bases in 47 attempts in 152 games. He won a Gold Glove, and also finished 14th in MVP voting. Unfortunately, the 2024 season didn't come close to matching those numbers from an offensive perspective. He did steal 22 bases in his 121 games, but his OPS fell to .700 with 11 homers over 70 plate appearances. That season came to an early end, as Kim underwent labrum surgery on his right shoulder that sidelined him from August on. Kim has shown flashes of brilliance with the bat, but hasn't quite put it together over a full season at the highest level. What about the defense? Kim has been a fantastic defensive player throughout his career, and while it's not the first thing fantasy managers think about when they envision adding a player, it does matter. It keeps him in the lineup, and the fact that he's been worth over two wins in Wins Above Replacement according to Baseball-Reference -- bWAR for short -- in his three full seasons is something that can't be ignored. Are there things to like about the bat? That being said, if Kim was a complete zero with the bat, we wouldn't be writing this article. The best trait for the shortstop is his patience at the plate, and he's walked in 12 percent of his at-bats in his last two seasons; a number that ranked him in the 96th percentile in 2024. As you might have guessed, that is largely due to him swinging at pitches outside of the zone at an exceptionally low rate with a chase rate in the 98th percentile at 18.6 percent. And unlike most hitters who draw free passes, Kim does it with minimal swing-and-miss. He struck out just 77 times in 470 plate appearances last year, and his 16.1 percent whiff rate also ranked in the 92nd percentile. Add in well above-average speed and the ability to read pitchers, and Kim has a prototypical leadoff approach that should allow him to get on base, steal bags and score runs -- assuming he's playing behind a quality lineup, of course. Where has Kim struggled? It's great that Kim draws walks and steals bases. It's not so great that he has not been able to make hard contact on a consistent basis whatsoever. He averaged just 87.9 mph in his exit velocity, and his hard-hit percentage was a paltry 35.4. Those numbers are actually up from his 2023 season (86.2 mph, 26.7 percent hard-hit percentage), so while they show you that you can have success even if you don't bash the baseball, it's also hard to hit for huge power or a high-average when your posting those kind of metrics. How will the Rays use Kim in 2025? First, it's worth noting that reports indicate that Kim will not be ready for the start of the season, and obviously that's something fantasy managers will need to keep in mind when comparing him to similar players. Once healthy, however, the Rays are obviously going to have someone making over eight figures in their everyday lineup. Kim has spent most of his career at shortstop, but he's also played second and third base in his career. Before the trade, it looked like Tampa Bay would run out an infield of Junior Caminero at third, Taylor Walls at shortstop, Brandon Lowe at second and Yandy Diaz at first. Now, it seems likely that Kim takes over for Walls in that capacity, but it's obviously possible a team like the Rays could be looking at moving a player like Lowe or Diaz. Either way, however, Kim is going to be starting when he's healthy enough to play. Where he fits in the lineup is another question. Kim makes sense in the leadoff spot, but they've used Yandy Diaz at the top of the lineup to considerable success over the last two years. He also could possibly hit at the bottom with a chance to get driven in by players like Diaz, Lowe and Christopher Morel -- among others -- but are the Rays going to pay Kim that kind of salary to play that kind of role? It seems unlikely, and I'd bet on Kim hitting first or second to begin the 2025 campaign. Is Kim worth a roster spot in 2025? I think so. Sure, there's a good chance we've seen him tap out in terms of power, and because he makes so much weak contact, I don't think he's ever going to be able to hit for the kind of averages he did in the KBO. That being said, the ability to get on base and then swipe bags -- and it's definitely worth pointing out that the Rays stole the fourth-most bases in 2025 and are likely to be on the move again -- while likely hitting at the top of a decent lineup makes him a player who can contribute in at least two categories. You probably don't want Kim as your starting shortstop to open the season, but you can do a lot worse than him as your middle-infield option. The fact he has multi-positional value doesn't hurt, either.
