While the Los Angeles Dodgers have unsurprisingly been the belle of the NL West's ball to begin the 2026 MLB season, their offense has yet to return to World Series form, with the team falling behind in all but one of their games so far despite only having one loss on the season at time of publication.
Fortunately, while Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Tucker, Freddie Freeman, and company look to get their regular season sea legs under them, the Dodgers have a 2025 World Series Champion, Hyeseong Kim, who is absolutely crushing it in Triple-A, hitting .364 with two RBIs over five games.
Discussing Kim's play before the series finale against the Cleveland Guardians, Dodgers analyst Nomar Garciaparra tipped his cap to the second-year pro, noting that he will be back in the majors in no time if he keeps playing at such a high level.
“When you’re down in the minor leagues, you’re supposed to do exactly what [Kim and Tibbs] are doing. They’re supposed to make us talk about them, and the media talk about them, because they are doing the job, getting the job done, and you force the MLB’s hand,” Garcia said via Hyeseong Kim Muse.
“Hyeseong Kim has already proven that he can play at the big league level and he made an impact last year. We saw that. And now, going down there, he had an unbelievable spring. You want to continue making us talk about that. You keep doing what you’re doing and he’s going to be up here in no time. They said, ‘Why did he get sent down?' Because they wanted him to continue to get at-bats… Take advantage of them and be ready, because I think he’s another one who’s going to maybe be getting that call-up pretty soon.”
While Alex Freeland, the player the Dodgers effectively chose to keep on their Opening Day roster over Kim has played well as well, hitting a home run on one of his six at-bats so far this season, if the Dodgers continue to struggle to get bottom-of-the-lineup players on base in front of Ohtani, they might just make a call down to Triple-A and see if “The Comet's” numbers translate back in the pros.
