The Los Angeles Dodgers have been stuck in a rut of inconsistency lately, watching a nine-game NL West lead from early July evaporate (and eventually get reclaimed). But at just 1.5 games over the Padres a little over two months later, there are some promising names coming back from the injured list.
Infielder Hyeseong Kim was a Korea Baseball Organization standout who had tons of potential to contribute to the team, but had a very real possibility of being stashed away in Triple-A for the entirety of 2025.
After a solid showing in the minors and batting .304 across his first 58 games in a Dodgers uniform, it was clear that Kim was here to stay.
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Unfortunately, the 26-year-old has been out with shoulder bursitis for a little over the month, but after MLB rosters expanded to 28 players on Monday, Kim was activated.
After claiming that he is “100 percent healthy,” he spoke on some of the changes he made to his swing to hopefully help his shoulder moving forward.
“I didn’t necessarily think my swing was that different. But through our R&D team and their analysis it was pretty clear my swing was different from early in the season,” Kim said.
The swing, however, wasn’t the reason that Kim’s shoulder caused him to miss time, as an errant slide caused things to seep into his offensive production.
“Initially, obviously sliding into second base was the cause of the injury but as it got worse the pain kept getting worse and it started affecting my swing,” he said.
Getting his swing correct was something that was paramount when starting his MLB career — especially given the velocity difference from KBO to MLB — and Kim noted that he used some of that same sentiment during his recovery process.
“Through the rehab games, I was able to go back to what I was working on during spring training and earlier in the season,” he said. “I kept practicing the same routine during the rehab process, just working on the same things over and over again trying to perfect my swing. I’ve felt a lot better recently.”
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Photo Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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