00:00One of the things that I think everybody's kind of been looking at and wondering about
00:04and trying to make heads or tails of is what is going on at shortstop for the Atlanta Braves.
00:11And not because it's something that has an immediate and obvious answer,
00:15but just because you were hoping to have this thing, I think, sorted out
00:18and just feel a little bit better about the consistency from that position.
00:21And how exactly did it become inconsistent?
00:23Well, injury was what started it, and that was the first domino that fell.
00:26The Braves re-signed Hassan Kim, who was claimed on waivers from the Tampa Bay Rays a year ago
00:30and was pretty solid in September.
00:32He went into the offseason, didn't have a multi-year offer,
00:36so he came back to the Braves for one year and $20 million.
00:40And I will say this, and some people can still disagree,
00:43there are no bad one-year deals because at least at the end of that year, you're done.
00:47There could be a lot of things bad with a three-year, four-year, five-year, ten-year deal.
00:50We've seen some of those go bad, but at least one year, you can kind of hedge your bets
00:55and say, okay, well, that didn't work out, so now we'll go do something else.
00:57And that will probably be the case here with Hassan Kim.
01:01But he got injured, hurt a finger, tore a ligament, I believe, in a finger when he fell,
01:05slipped on some ice, is going to miss spring training, does miss spring training,
01:09misses the first month and a half of the season, finally comes back in May
01:13and just is not the same player that you saw a year ago,
01:17has not really been able to find his footing at all,
01:20ends up on the injured list for a little while,
01:22still trying to, I think, work through some of the finger issues
01:24and, honestly, a mental break as well.
01:27That's an added bonus for the kind of start that he got off to.
01:30But in the meantime, in the interim, you had Mauricio Dubon playing a pretty good shortstop.
01:34You had Jorge Mateo.
01:36And then, at some point, Jim Jarvis worked his way into this equation as well.
01:42So you've had some pretty capable, I think, defensive shortstops going on.
01:46But offensively speaking, you just haven't gotten a lot out of the position,
01:48and you certainly aren't getting the things that you kind of envisioned from Hassan Kim.
01:52I was thinking a guy that could hit .250 to .260 on base around .330,
01:56hit 12, 15 home runs, maybe steal, 20 bases.
02:00The things that he had done, pretty much, if you look at the average year in San Diego,
02:04but injuries have really sapped Hassan Kim, both in 2025 and here in 2026.
02:08He just has not been a part of the solution at shortstop.
02:12Now, Mauricio Dubon has played a lot of outfield.
02:14He's had a couple of issues, not to the point where I would say,
02:16okay, well, you've got to stop playing Mauricio Dubon in the outfield.
02:18But there have been a couple of misplayed fly balls.
02:21There was another one on Friday.
02:23There's one he came running in.
02:24And if you've ever played the position, trust me, it's harder than it looks sometimes.
02:28You get fooled on a ball.
02:29And big leaguers get fooled less than amateurs, like yours truly.
02:33But he just made a bad play.
02:36And those things happen.
02:37Now, the Braves did not score any runs on Friday.
02:39So I'd almost say that the Mauricio Dubon play becomes irrelevant if you're unable to score.
02:43If you don't score, you don't win.
02:44But there have been a couple of those.
02:45So I will stipulate.
02:47Maybe, you know, the outfield is not the ideal thing.
02:49And I'm going to get to one of the other prongs of this discussion based on that.
02:53I think at this point, if the playoffs start tomorrow, which they don't,
02:56Mauricio Dubon is your starting shortstop.
02:58And in left field, you figure out between Mike Yastrzemski and Lane Thomas,
03:03who's starting based on if you're facing a lefty or a righty.
03:07But as you look at shortstop right now, in the playoffs, again, don't start tomorrow.
03:10You're just not getting anything out of Jim Jarvis at this point, offensively speaking.
03:15He's a solid shortstop.
03:17Don't get me wrong.
03:18But as you look at just the overall, you know, the test that Major League Baseball is,
03:24he had some success first time through the league.
03:27Then as more video got out, more tape got out, pitchers started to kind of figure some things out,
03:32pitch them a little differently.
03:33Maybe as a young hitter, you start to get a little bit more aggressive.
03:35You start getting yourself out.
03:36Just a few things that go into the adjustment that it takes to win at this level,
03:41to be successful at this level.
03:42But if you look at Jim Jarvis here lately, he did have a hit on Sunday.
03:47But he is, what, three for his last 30 in the month of August.
03:51He's got one walk and eight strikeouts there.
03:54So the OPS on the year now is still well under 600.
03:58He's played 35 games.
03:59And a well under 600 OPS, well, that obviously is not ideal.
04:03That's the kind of production that you would get typically from a good-hitting pitcher back in the day.
04:09And a good-hitting pitcher, I can tell you, is not three for 30,
04:12although, you know, in some cases maybe they were.
04:15But I think we're seeing that if you're looking for the guy at shortstop,
04:18he's getting the regular reps, that's still very much an open-ended discussion.
04:23Now, I'm curious about Hasan Kim's role at this point.
04:25I've been asked about this a lot when I do call-ins here on 92.9 The Game as to,
04:28what are the Braves doing with Hasan Kim?
04:30Like, what's the path here?
04:31I mean, they activated him from the injured list.
04:33They cut Jorge Mateo, and some folks were upset about that.
04:35I don't really know why.
04:36He had a couple of good weeks, one good week in particular.
04:39But otherwise, you're talking about a 220 hitter with an OPS a little bit over 600.
04:43You kind of know who Jorge Mateo is.
04:45He's fast.
04:46He's got a good arm.
04:47He played a solid shortstop.
04:48He didn't hit a lot.
04:49Does that sound familiar?
04:51Because that seems to be what the Braves have run into a lot at that position.
04:54But Hasan Kim, Alex Antopoulos did say this after the trade deadline.
04:59There have been no thoughts whatsoever of just cutting bait and moving on from him.
05:02Now, Walt Weiss has basically said, you know,
05:05I'm going to go with whoever gives us the best chance to win a game,
05:07and we've seen a lot, but that's been Jim Jarvis.
05:09Occasionally, it's still Mauricio Dubon.
05:11But since Kim came off the injured list on the trade deadline,
05:15so that was August the 3rd, so we're looking at about two weeks now,
05:19I'm still a little bit baffled that he's just,
05:21I didn't expect him to get unlimited playing time,
05:23but the guy's played in four games.
05:24He's made one start.
05:26And I understand.
05:27Look, I can look at the numbers.
05:28They're not great.
05:29But I'm also looking at the production that you're not getting,
05:32basically, from anybody else,
05:33and just thought maybe throw him a bone once a series.
05:37Try to figure out some opportunities to get him in there,
05:40just by giving the other guy a day off.
05:44Like, shouldn't there be something going on here?
05:45I'm just a little bit confused about it.
05:47I'm not sure I understand why not at least to try him,
05:50since Jim Jarvis is not hitting at all.
05:52And you do have, and I know people hate this,
05:54and I don't think it's the only reason he's here,
05:55but it's a big reason.
05:57You did pay this guy $20 million.
05:59Like, you just have no more curiosity?
06:01You saw a bad month in May and June?
06:03Guess what?
06:04The whole club had a bad month in June.
06:06And it's not like you are not going to play all the other guys
06:08that are veterans that have better numbers
06:10than they would have put up in the month of June.
06:11It's just, I know the Hassan Kim at that time
06:14just pretty much looked lost at the plate.
06:17And maybe this is just kind of a story that's already written its end
06:20and the writing's on the wall,
06:22and that's exactly why you're seeing it the way you're seeing it.
06:24I was just curious as to why maybe not a few more here or there.
06:28And maybe that will happen in the next five or six weeks,
06:30because I don't think that you can keep hitting a guy
06:32that's batting 100 for the month
06:34for an unlimited amount of at-bats moving forward.
06:37I just think it's a very unique situation
06:40that the Braves have found themselves in at that spot.
06:42And the trickle-down of this is if you are playing Mauricio Dubon
06:45in the outfield, in left field,
06:47when you've got Mauricio Dubon out there
06:49and Mike Yastrzemski's not playing,
06:50didn't you go get Lane Thomas?
06:52Lane Thomas has come over.
06:53He's played eight games.
06:54He has 16 plate appearances in two weeks.
06:57This is a guy that, yes, he mashes lefties,
06:59but he can also hit righties.
07:01So I guess I'm saying that the answer is there.
07:03If you want to tell me Hasan Kim's not it, cool.
07:05I'll take your word for it.
07:06I'm not going to argue with you.
07:08Put Mauricio Dubon at shortstop,
07:09do Lane Thomas and Mike Yastrzemski in left field,
07:12and be done with it.
07:13You have Jim Jarvis as a reserve infielder.
07:16If you've got Hasan Kim as a reserve infielder
07:18that you don't trust to hit at all,
07:19I guess that is what it is.
07:21But it's just a very strange rotation
07:23between those four players in those two positions,
07:26not really Yastrzemski so much.
07:27Like, he's going to get his starts in left field.
07:29But between the shortstops,
07:31the two shortstops plus Mauricio Dubon plus Lane Thomas,
07:34I just feel like there's a way to get some better at-bats
07:37out of those two units.
07:39Defensively speaking, it's fine at shortstop.
07:42It's not a critical issue.
07:44But I think, to some point,
07:46I'm sure that just about everybody's kind of tired
07:49of hearing about the Braves not having settled shortstop.
07:51Because it's been pretty unsettled
07:53since Dansby Swanson left and signed with the Chicago Cubs.
07:56You got one solid year out of Orlando Arcea,
07:58and then in 24, in 25, and now again in 26.
08:02You're trying to make up for that in the aggregate,
08:04but you haven't really been able to solve that
08:06to the level that you want to.
08:07Arcea turned back into a pumpkin.
08:10Nick Allen was a great defensive player
08:12with little to no offensive impact and upside whatsoever.
08:15I just thought we were going to see something
08:17a little bit different when you got Hasan Kim in.
08:19And then in September, he kind of gave you the idea
08:20that, all right, if you bring him back,
08:22maybe you have solved it at least for a year.
08:25But you are continually kicking the can down the road on this.
08:28And it is a rather important spot.
08:29It's not the only important spot.
08:31I mean, if you've got a star center fielder
08:33and a star right fielder and a star first baseman
08:35and a star catcher and a star second baseman,
08:38I get it.
08:39You got some other players who do a lot of things
08:41that allow you to kind of figure these things out,
08:42including left field, including shortstop.
08:44And at this point for the Braves, including DH,
08:46which I also think that Lane Thomas,
08:49if he's not doing anything else,
08:51why not give him some at-bats at the DH spot?
08:53Because it doesn't seem like the Braves
08:54are getting a ton out of that either.
08:56I mean, if you want to give some guys
08:58that are different days off
08:59and still have their bat in the lineup,
09:01yeah, it makes sense.
09:02If you want to catch Sean Murphy a little bit more,
09:04maybe let his bat start to get going
09:06by giving him more reps and more at-bats,
09:09you could DH Drake Baldwin a little bit more.
09:11It's just a lot of different options.
09:12I don't manage the team.
09:13I'm not pretending to know all the intricacies
09:15that go into managing all the people and personalities
09:17and everybody has a different way of wanting to do it.
09:19It's kind of subjective,
09:21but it just seems like there's some meat on the bone
09:23for the Braves to try a couple of different things
09:25that could get them a little bit more production
09:26in a couple of areas as they move forward.
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