Hyeseong Kim remained on the Los Angeles Dodgers’ major league roster on May 26 and started at second base, batting eighth in the home game against the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium, a decision that led the club to designate Santiago Espinal for assignment.
The move came after Kiké Hernández returned from his stint on the injured list; when the Dodgers decided to keep Kim with the big-league club they cut Espinal to clear the spot. Right-handed Emmett Shehan started for the Dodgers that day against Colorado’s right-hander Tanner Gordon.
Kim, 27, has appeared in 40 games this season and posted a.255 batting average with 28 hits in 110 at-bats, including one home run, three doubles and one triple. He has driven in 10 runs, scored 13 times, walked 11 times and struck out 30 times. He has five stolen bases and one caught stealing, and his on-base percentage is.320 with a.327 slugging percentage and a.647 OPS.
The Dodgers entered the game leading the National League West at 33-20; Colorado sat fifth at 20-34, a 13.5-game gap between the clubs. The roster math around Hernández’s return had been expected to force a decision between Kim and Espinal, and the club ultimately chose to keep Kim on the 26-man roster.
Manager Dave Roberts acknowledged the difficulty of the choice and the strain it put on the players involved. Roberts told reporters, "He’s back to chasing," and added, "He’s passive when he shouldn’t be, and then he’s getting into bad counts. I don’t know if it’s a mechanical thing. But he’s been grinding the last — quite honestly, the last month it’s been kind of tough for him." He also said, "He’s preparing and competing," but concluded bluntly, "but right now, it’s just not working."
The Athletic reported that Roberts had a difficult conversation with the parties involved about Kim and Espinal before Hernández’s return, underscoring how close the decision was. That reported discussion framed the club’s choice: keep the younger infielder who has shown enough to remain on the roster, or retain the veteran depth piece who had been expected to be the odd man out when Hernández returned from offseason elbow surgery.
Recent form complicated the decision. Sports Illustrated tracked a rough stretch for Kim: just six hits in his last 40 at-bats, 16 strikeouts and a.377 OPS in that span. Those numbers sit uneasily against his overall season line and explain why the Dodgers’ coaching staff and front office treated the roster decision as a test of faith in a player who has shown flashes but has also been inconsistent.
The tension is simple and immediate: the Dodgers chose to protect roster space for Kim rather than Espinal, betting that Kim will halt the slide and contribute, even as Roberts’ quotes underline his current struggles at the plate. The most consequential question now is whether Kim can stop the recent skid and justify the Dodgers’ decision, or whether the club will have to reverse course and find roster flexibility elsewhere.
