Kim Ha-seong has not recorded a hit in six consecutive games. His batting average, once respectable enough to justify a $20 million bet on himself, has fallen to .116. And it is happening at the worst possible moment: in the final stretch of a season in which the Atlanta Braves have already clinched the National League East and locked up a postseason berth, while the Gold Glove-winning infielder who chose to stay and prove himself watches his production evaporate right before the roster decisions that matter most.
On September 23 (Korea time), Kim started at shortstop and batted ninth against the Cincinnati Reds at Truist Park, going hitless in three at-bats. He tried a surprise bunt in the third inning and was thrown out on a comebacker to the pitcher. He flew out to right field in the sixth. He popped out in foul territory to the first baseman in the eighth. None of it worked, and Atlanta lost the game 0-4. It was the sixth straight game without a hit, and it dropped his season average to .116 — 14 hits in 121 at-bats.
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A Number That Doesn’t Belong to a Major League Regular
To put .116 in context for readers unfamiliar with how batting averages work: a mark that low is not just “struggling.” It is a number more commonly associated with a pitcher forced to hit, or a defensive replacement getting occasional plate appearances he isn’t expected to do anything with. For a player who won a National League Gold Glove three years ago and signed a one-year, eight-figure contract to stay with the same organization, a .116 average represents one of the most dramatic single-season collapses a regular position player can produce while still drawing a major-league paycheck and a lineup spot.
It’s worth being precise about the shape of that number, too. A .116 average built on 121 at-bats is not the product of a full, healthy season gone wrong from Opening Day. Kim has dealt with injury absences and inconsistent playing time in 2026, which is part of why his total at-bat count is so low this deep into September for an everyday infielder. But the low volume doesn’t soften the collapse — if anything, it sharpens it. Every at-bat he has gotten this season has carried outsized weight, and lately, almost none of them have gone his way.
The Last Time He Got a Hit
Kim’s most recent hit came on September 12 (Korea time), when he was sent up as a pinch hitter against the Philadelphia Phillies and delivered a go-ahead hit that helped rescue the game for Atlanta — the kind of high-leverage, off-the-bench contribution that had briefly looked like it might turn his season around. Instead, it turned out to be the last time he reached base by hit for the next eleven days. Since that moment, Kim has gone hitless in every plate appearance across six straight games, a stretch that has erased whatever momentum that pinch-hit heroics briefly built.
That kind of whiplash — one dramatic, winning contribution followed by nearly two weeks of complete silence at the plate — is part of what makes this stretch so difficult to read. It isn’t a simple story of a player in steady decline. It’s a player capable, in flashes, of exactly the kind of clutch production a championship-caliber team wants from its bench, who then disappears at the plate for game after game immediately afterward.
The Backdrop: A Division Title Won Without Him
The timing makes Kim’s slump sting more than it otherwise would, because Atlanta has not needed him to get where it’s going. On September 19 (local time), the Braves beat the Houston Astros 6-2 on the road to reach 90 wins on the season, stretching their lead over the second-place Philadelphia Phillies to five games and formally clinching a postseason berth — with their magic number for an outright NL East title trimmed to three. Ronald Acuña Jr. hit a two-run home run in the seventh inning to extend the lead, and Matt Olson closed it out with his 40th home run of the season in the ninth. Kim did not play in that game. He has been a spectator, more often than not, for the biggest moments of Atlanta’s stretch run.
There’s a strange kind of irony sitting inside that fact. Kim signed with Atlanta specifically because he believed in the team’s ability to win, and because staying gave him a shot at proving his value heading into another trip through free agency. The Braves have delivered exactly the winning environment he bet on. He just hasn’t been part of producing it.
How He Got Here: San Diego, Tampa Bay, and a Waiver Claim
Kim’s path to this Atlanta uniform is not a simple one, and it helps explain both his pedigree and the uncertainty now surrounding him. He broke into the major leagues with the San Diego Padres, where in 2023 he won the National League’s Gold Glove at the utility infield position — playing 106 games at second base, 32 at third, and 20 at shortstop that season while handling all three spots well enough to become the first Korean-born player, and the first Asian-born infielder in MLB history, to win a Gold Glove. It was a landmark moment that pushed back against a long-standing and unfair perception in the sport that Asian-born players lacked the physical tools to hold down demanding infield positions at the highest level.
From San Diego, Kim’s career took him to the Tampa Bay Rays, a stretch he has since described in candid terms — noting that he found himself isolated there, without teammates to really talk to, everyone consumed by their own business in a clubhouse that didn’t foster the kind of connection he’d had elsewhere. Atlanta then claimed him off waivers from Tampa Bay, giving him a fresh start in a new clubhouse and, eventually, a chance to help a contending team down the stretch. When his contract came up for renewal after the 2025 season, Kim chose to stay rather than test the open market immediately: he re-signed with Atlanta on a one-year, $20 million deal — a $4 million raise over his previous salary — with the explicit plan of returning to free agency after the 2026 season, betting that another strong year would set up a bigger long-term contract than what was available at the time.
That is the contract now sitting under a microscope. A “prove it” season was always going to be scrutinized more closely than a normal one, and a .116 batting average in the season’s final stretch is not the kind of platform Kim or his representatives were hoping to build going into another run at free agency.
What a Gold Glove Season Was Supposed to Buy Him
It’s worth remembering what made Kim valuable in the first place, because it clarifies exactly what’s being lost during this slump. His 2023 Gold Glove wasn’t a fluke or a reward for a single highlight-reel play — it reflected a full season of steady, multi-position defensive competence at a time when teams increasingly value infielders who can move between second, third, and shortstop without a drop-off. That kind of defensive versatility doesn’t disappear because a bat goes cold. Whatever is happening at the plate right now, Kim’s glove work has generally remained an asset, which is part of why his roster spot heading into October hasn’t been a simple binary decision for Atlanta’s front office.
But glove-only value has limits, especially on a roster this deep into a pennant race. A team that has already clinched its division and is setting its sights on a deep postseason run has to weigh late-inning defensive replacements against bats that can actually produce runs when it matters. That’s the tension defining Kim’s final weeks of the regular season: is he valuable enough with the glove and the occasional flash of clutch hitting — like that September 12 pinch-hit — to justify a spot on a 26-man playoff roster over a healthier, more productive alternative?
A Roster Spot That Isn’t as Settled as It Once Looked
Earlier in the season, an injury to another Atlanta infielder had appeared to all but secure Kim’s place on the postseason roster by thinning out the team’s depth at his positions. At that point, the calculation seemed straightforward: barring a full recovery elsewhere on the roster, Kim’s defensive versatility alone made him worth carrying into October. Beat reporters covering the team have floated the idea that he would serve as a backup infielder rotating in behind Atlanta’s regular starters up the middle, a low-pressure, defense-first role suited to his skill set even in a down offensive year.
That earlier assessment, though, came before this current six-game hitless stretch pushed his season average all the way down to .116. As Atlanta’s season has wound toward its conclusion, Korean beat writers covering Kim closely have begun raising a more pointed question — not just whether he’ll be a bench piece in October, but whether a team built to win now can justify carrying a bat performing at this level onto a postseason roster at all, even in a purely defensive capacity. Nothing has been decided publicly, and Atlanta’s front office has not announced a final postseason roster; any specific projection about who makes the 26-man group remains speculation until the team confirms it. But the terms of the conversation around Kim have shifted, from “how will he be used” to “will he be used,” and that alone says something about how sharply his numbers have fallen in September.
Why This Matters Beyond One Bad Stretch
There’s a broader context that makes Kim’s current situation resonate beyond a simple hot-or-cold streak. He is not a rookie trying to establish himself, nor a journeyman filling out a bench. He is a Gold Glove winner who turned down the chance to test the open market coming off a strong-enough track record, choosing instead to bet on himself for one more year in Atlanta. A .116 average in the final stretch of that “prove it” season doesn’t erase the 2023 Gold Glove or the defensive value he still brings — but it does complicate the story he was hoping to tell going into his next contract negotiation.
There’s also a simpler, more human dimension to it. Kim has already spoken about the isolation he felt during his time in Tampa Bay, a period he has since left behind. Atlanta, by most accounts, has been a more comfortable environment for him — a clubhouse he chose to stay in rather than leave. A player who has fought through a difficult professional stretch to find a place he wants to be, only to see his production collapse right as that team reaches its biggest moments of the year without him, is a story with more emotional weight than a simple slump line implies.
What Comes Next
Atlanta enters the season’s final week with its division title effectively wrapped up and its focus already shifting toward postseason roster construction. For Kim, the six days remaining in the regular season represent one last opportunity to find something — anything — resembling the form that once made him a Gold Glove-caliber everyday player. A single strong week won’t erase a .116 season average, but in the specific, narrow calculus of who gets a spot on a 26-man October roster, even a modest hot streak right now could shift the conversation back in his favor.
If it doesn’t come, Atlanta will have to make a defense-versus-production decision with real stakes: whether a player of Kim’s defensive pedigree and clutch-hitting history is still worth a roster spot when his bat has gone this cold at the worst possible time, or whether a healthier, more productive alternative gives the reigning division champion a better chance at making a deep October run. Either way, nothing about Kim’s situation will be resolved by reputation alone. It will be decided, as these things always are in professional sports, by what happens in the at-bats that are left.
For now, the season line stands as the story: a Gold Glove winner, a one-year, $20 million show-me contract, a division title clinched largely without him, and a batting average that reads more like a pitcher’s than an everyday infielder’s. Whatever happens over Atlanta’s final week and into the postseason, Kim Ha-seong’s 2026 season will be remembered as much for the six-game silence at its end as for anything that came before it.
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