Profar & Kim are crucial to the Padres' success

The San Diego Padres have invested more into their utility infielders that any other team in baseball. Now, with both guys filling open spots as everyday starters, things could go sideways quickly.

Even before it was revealed that Fernando Tatis Jr. has a broken wrist, I was starting to worry about how much the 2022 San Diego Padres are going to be relying on their utility infielders on an everyday basis.

Now, a lot of those fears have died down since the team traded for Luke Voit and filled the vacuum at DH, but we’re a little over two weeks away from opening day and it looks like both Jurickson Profar and Ha-Seong Kim will be in the starting lineup that day.

For that reason, it’s probably a good idea to take the temperature of both gentlemen and see if we can make some predictions about who they’ll be this season.

Kim Ha-Seong

I know. Sometimes I refer to him with his last name first (as is the custom in Korea), and sometimes I refer to him with his first name first (as we are accustomed to in USA). Just roll with it.

Kim’s first season with the Padres was not dissimilar from his rookie season in the KBO. The stats are remarkably similar, although they happened seven seasons apart.

Now, that could give you reason to believe that he’s been here before and knows how to build on it, or it could convince you that the KBO is so different from MLB that (even at his fully realized potential) Kim is never going to hit enough to be a factor on this side of the Pacific.

One thing is for sure, Kim’s glove plays. Across three different infield positions, Kim has shown himself to be among the league’s best with the leather. That’s a useful feature for a utility infielder! If his offense catches up, he’ll graduate up to needing a spot in the every day lineup. And, fortunately for him (and nobody else), he’ll get a chance to prove that he’s ready for that at the start of this season.

Will Kim’s OPS be above .900 like it was in the KBO? Doubtful. Will it be a repeat of the .622 OPS he posted with the Padres last season? Also doubtful. As per usual, my stance is to land between the two extremes.

I think Kim either bounces to a .725-750 OPS (which is fine), or makes a bigger leap and has an OPS over .800 by time Tatis returns from his injury recovery.

But I’m being optimistic. More of the same offensively from Kim might be enough to sink the Padres offense early. And an injury would certainly point a spotlight at the team’s dreadful depth.

Speaking of…

Jurickson Profar

With Kim taking the SS spot with Tatis out, that leaves Profar as the main backup at 2B/SS/3B. Also, as of right now, he’s the team starting left fielder. And now we’ve reached the crux of the issue.

The Padres signed Kim Ha-Seong and Jurickson Profar to contracts that highlight their importance to the team. Their salaries combined this season would make them 5th highest paid player on the team. Reminder: They’re just supposed to be backups, they’re not supposed to start.

And now, at least as things are currently configured, they will both be in the starting lineup. Who becomes the backup IF with Kim and Profar in the lineup already? No idea. Who is the 4th OF with Profar playing the role as the 3rd OF? No clue.

The depth is a problem. One injury makes it a very serious issue that the Padres will have difficulty overcoming. But before we even get there, how worried should we be about Jurickson Profar being in the lineup every day?

Well, Profar’s MLB career could be clearly defined as “inconsistent”.

That is a quite a lot of change to batting average, on base percentage, and slugging percentage. That means there is literally zero way of predicting if Profar is going to be a good enough offensive player (like he was in 2018 and 2020), or if he’ll be the same guy from last season that couldn’t hit a fastball down the middle of the plate.

Either way, the Padres roster is constructed in a weird (and inefficient) way that puts a lot on the shoulders of these two guys, with no real way to know how they’re going to respond to that. Strap in and enjoy the ride, I guess.