When the Texas Rangers signed Seong-Jun Kim last week, they said they were very impressed with him both as a baseball prospect and as a person. One journalist who reported on the signing went beyond that. He said he was undecided about whether to call Kim \u201cthe next Babe Ruth\u201d or merely \u201cthe Korean Shohei Ohtani.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whoa!<\/p>\n
We\u2019re talking about an 18-year-old youth who won\u2019t even graduate from high school until early next year. Perhaps it\u2019s a bit premature to be comparing him to Hall of Famers.<\/p>\n
Can\u2019t we be content with calling him the first Seong-Jun Kim? That\u2019s impressive all by itself.<\/p>\n
Last year Kim was named the Amateur Player of the Year in South Korea. He was both the best pitcher and the best shortstop of his age group.<\/p>\n
As a pitcher he has reached 95 miles per hour on the radar guns. He complimented that sizzling heater with a slider, a curve and a splitter that was a deadly swing-and-miss strike out pitch,<\/p>\n
As a hitter he batted .333 against teenage competition. He sprinkled in enough extra-base hits for his OPS to reach 1.015.<\/p>\n
And \u2014 by all reports \u2014 he was a magnificent fielder.<\/p>\n
Traditionally, South Korean ballplayers begin their professional careers in the Korean Baseball Organization \u2014 South Korea\u2019s premier league. If they\u2019re good enough they go on to play in the major leagues after they\u2019ve reached their mid-20s.<\/p>\n
Kim has elected to take a different path. Since he has signed with the Rangers he will come to North America as soon as he completes his high school education. He will attempt to develop his skills in the Rangers farm system.<\/p>\n
Not just some of his skills. All of them. Pitching, batting and fielding. The Rangers say they are committed to bringing Kim to the majors as a \u201ctwo-way\u201d player. If they are successful, the comparisons to Ohtani will be inevitable. Ohtani, now with the Dodgers, has performed at an All-Star level, both as a pitcher and as a designated hitter. If Kim is successful, he will go a step farther. He would be the first to alternate between pitching and playing another defensive position in the same season. Even Ruth never did that.<\/p>\n
Ruth, of course, played in a different era. Ohtani is a contemporary, and the best example \u2014 actually, the only example \u2014 of a player who has done what Kim is hoping to accomplish. But even Ohtani isn\u2019t a perfect comparison.<\/p>\n
Ohtani is Japanese and \u2014 yes \u2014 he spent six years playing at the highest level of Japanese baseball before coming to the major leagues. By the time he reached North America he was an accomplished slugger and an accomplished pitcher, and he was able to assimilate both of those talents brilliantly in the major leagues.<\/p>\n
If he had taken Kim\u2019s proposed route \u2014 up the minor league ladder \u2014 he might not have become the player he is today.<\/p>\n
Kim will be a teenager when he arrives. Scouts can project what he will be able to do when he is fully mature, but no one knows for sure. He will be nurtured \u2014 probably very carefully at first \u2014 in the Rangers\u2019 farm system.<\/p>\n
He will probably be assigned to the Rangers Rookie League team in the Arizona Complex League. He will be introduced to a new land and a new culture. He will probably spend more time taking instruction than he will spend playing minor league games. However, before the season is over, it is likely the Rangers will move him to the Hickory Crawdads in the Low Class A Carolina League. They would probably like to see him reach High Class A during the 2027 season.<\/p>\n
That sounds nice and smooth, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n
Maybe things will actually go that smoothly, but they probably won\u2019t. Kim is one person, but he is essentially two ballplayers. The Rangers want to develop him as a pitcher and a hitter and, chances are, he won\u2019t develop both skills at the same rate. Then what?<\/p>\n
What will happen if, at some level, Kim overwhelms the competition as a pitcher but struggles as a hitter? Will the Rangers promote him to a higher level and keep his pitching development on pace, or will they keep him where he is and hope that the hitting catches up?\u00a0 Will they stick to their commitment to make him a two-way player or will they focus solely on the skill that seems to hold the most promise?<\/p>\n
Suppose he reaches the point where he could help the major league club in one capacity, but probably not the other? If that were to happen \u2014 and there\u2019s a good chance it will \u2014 the Rangers will certainly be tempted to alter their grandiose plans and deploy him like almost everybody else, as a one-way player.<\/p>\n
Of course, there\u2019s a chance it will all work out. There\u2019s a chance they will get Kim to the majors as a light-out pitcher, a smooth shortstop and a solid hitter. What an achievement that will be if they do.<\/p>\n
Every major league team today carries 13 pitchers, and most would carry even more if the rules allowed. With a 26-man roster that means they start each game with only four bench players and one of them is a backup catcher. A true two-way player would give them either a 14th pitcher or a fifth bench player\u2013 either of which would represent a significant advantage.<\/p>\n
If a player who is a star pitcher and a star shortstop gives them that advantage \u2014 well, that\u2019s what dreams are made of.<\/p>\n
PITCHING AND DEFENSIVE HIGHS AND LOWS (Wednesday\u2019s games not included): Staff ERA: Mets 2.80, Rockies 5.61; ERA Starters: Mets 2.85, Rockies 6.67; ERA Relievers: Giants 2.53, Angels 6.31; Opponents\u2019 Batting Average: Yankees .208, Rockies .297; Home Runs Allowed: Mets 35, Orioles 86; Unearned Runs Allowed: Rays 10, Rockies 52; Saves: Phillies, Padres 19 each, White Sox 5; Holds: Guardians, Dodgers 42 each, Rockies 16; Walks: Twins 130, Angels 221; Strikeouts: Phillies 531, Rockies 363; Hit By Pitch: Mets 12, White Sox, Nationals 36 each; Balks: 5 clubs with 0, Diamondbacks 6; Wild Pitches: Rays 7, Nationals 30; Passed Balls: Dodgers, Twins, Mariners 0, Marlins 6; Errors: Cardinals 19, Rockies 47; Double Plays: Angels 65, Twins 27; Stolen Bases Allowed: Royals 9, Marlins 80; Caught Stealing Percentage: Mets 38 percent, Astros 9 percent.<\/p>\n
Former Hall of Fame voter Jay Dunn has written baseball for The Trentonian for 57 years. Contact him at\u00a0jaydunn8@aol.com<\/p>\n
Originally Published: May 28, 2025 at 2:05 PM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the Texas Rangers signed Seong-Jun Kim last week, they said they were very impressed with him both…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2393],"tags":[5,4,149,185,1567,69,3240,10665],"class_list":{"0":"post-61987","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas-rangers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-rangers","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-texas-rangers","14":"tag-texasrangers","15":"tag-top-stories-trt"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114587212486084564","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}