The shortstop situation remains bleak for the Atlanta Braves

There’s no such thing as a bad one-year deal. It’s an old baseball axiom that has remained true for quite some time, even if some cases tend to test that theory. This is one such case, as it’s become very clear that the Ha-Seong Kim one-year deal hasn’t worked out anywhere near the level to where both parties figured it would once they agreed to the one-year, $20 million deal during the offseason.

During the series recap for the Diamondbacks series, I mentioned that Ha-Seong Kim had made “progress” after he recorded his fourth RBI of the season during that blowout loss on Saturday to Arizona. Not his fourth RBI of the game — his fourth of the season. I would never lie to you on the internet, so here’s video proof!

This was his first RBI since June 3 and that only came after he had what looks like a hot streak in comparison back in late-May, which is when he picked up two RBI in a three-game span. That is absolutely anemic in terms of counting stats.

Somehow, Kim’s four RBI don’t have him in last place among hitters with at least 80 plate appearances. Four other players have made at least 80 plate appearances and have produced fewer RBI than Kim has done so far this season. With that being said, some of the stats that Kim has put up this season have truly got to be seen to be believed.

Among batters with at least 80 plate appearances, he’s last in Isolated Power (.000), he’s last in BABIP (.094), he’s last in batting average (.066), he’s next-to-last in On-Base Percentage (.165), he’s last in slugging percentage (.066), he’s last in wOBA (.126), he’s in a three-way tie for next-t0-last in xwOBA (.207) and he’s last in wRC+ with a scarcely-believable 29 wRC+. This is astonishing.

It’s not just bad in the contained season of 2026. It’s historically bad. Baseball-Reference ambassador Addison Torres broke it down in a way that is absolutely mortifying.

Again, Ha-Seong Kim’s 2026 season is very much testing the limits of just how far you can go without saying “Okay, maybe this was a bad one-year deal,” because that is absolutely terrifying to look at. Those are ghastly numbers. I can’t stress enough how bad that is.

Now, the caveat here is that it’s just been a tough year for Kim all-around and you have to feel for the rotten luck that he’s had all the way since the fireworks went off to celebrate the new year. The poor guy slipped on ice back in January and that appears to have basically been the catalyst for sending his season off the rails. He ended up spending another month on the shelf after he re-injured that same finger to cap off June and in fact, he hasn’t recorded a hit since June 3. Sure, some folks might’ve felt skeptical about the deal (personally, I loved it. I miss how optimistic I was.) after the season he had in 2025 but I really and truly don’t think that anybody could’ve anticipated just how much of a nightmare this would turn out to be — and all because of an icy mishap in his home country back in January.

The only silver lining is that despite having a shortstop who is producing arguably the worst shortstop season of all time, the Braves do not have the worst shortstop situation in baseball. According to fWAR, Braves shortstops have produced 0.7 fWAR this season — that’s still a bottom-five number but also that means that somehow, four teams have gotten worse production from their shortstops. Incredible.

Thankfully, the trio of Mauricio Dubón, Jim Jarvis and Jorge Mateo have proven to at least be capable of manning the spot whenever called upon (even though Mateo isn’t around anymore) and they’ve essentially been able to keep Atlanta somewhat afloat with one half of their keystone combination while their prized acquisition from the offseason has been putting up Brooklyn Brawler numbers. The sad part about that is that Dubón’s been a lot better defensively in the outfield than he has been at shortstop and while Jim Jarvis has certainly picked up the slack with his defense, his hitting has left a ton to be desired. It’s truly a tough situation for the Braves to be in at such an important position in the field.

So what should Atlanta do about this position moving forward? Essentially, it feels like Atlanta’s right back to where they were last season before Ha-Seong Kim was even part of the Braves. It feels like this might end up being one of those things where they continue to just find a way to build a ramshackle bridge between the present and one of either Tate Southisene or Alex Lodise (probably Lodise) coming up and claiming shortstop as their own. Both of those guys are still a ways away from being ready for big league action, so likely they’ll have to figure out a way to get through 2027 and part of 2028 while figuring out something with their shortstop situation.

Maybe they’ll bring Mauricio Dubón back and simply run with him continuing to be their Swiss army knife-type defender and maybe they’ll continue to hope that Jim Jarvis can raise his perceived ceiling as a big-leaguer. Whatever the free agent landscape might look like once teams are actually able to sign and acquire players following the almost-assuredly forthcoming lockout, it’s pretty bleak for shortstop. As of right now, the only two options for shortstop following this season are J.P. Crawford and (wait for it) Jorge Mateo. 2027 doesn’t look a lot better either, since Jeremy Peña will be the clear and obvious gem compared to a field that would include Javier Báez, Taylor Walls and Trevor Story if the Red Sox don’t exercise their club option.

So yeah, the free agent is bleak and that probably explains why the Braves were willing to shell out $20 million for Ha-Seong Kim. If it worked, that could’ve been a bridge to the future since there aren’t too many good shortstop options out there in terms of free agency and other teams will surely be asking for the moon and the stars in order to give up a productive shortstop of their own. Unfortunately, it hasn’t worked and now the Braves are in a serious pickle when it comes to their shortstop situation.

There’s no such thing as a bad one-year deal, though! I will keep telling myself this in the mirror until I have either reclaimed my sanity or lost it completely, whichever comes first!