Of course, Sung-Mun Song had big-league aspirations. But he was realistic, too. He\u2019d lost one season to the pandemic and had gone five years without an OPS above .700 heading into the 2024 season in the Korean Baseball Organization.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I would not have made any progress for the last two years,\u201d Song said through interpreter Sam Jeong, \u201cthis would have been a press conference for me to announce that I\u2019m retiring.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Tuesday\u2019s video conference with San Diego media was not that at all.<\/p>\n
Song smiled widely in a Padres jersey while relaying an introduction in rehearsed English as a former Kiwoom Heroes teammate did nearly five years ago:<\/p>\n
\u201cHello, name is Sung-Mun Song. I\u2019m happy to be here today and very excited to be in San Diego. Let\u2019s go Padres,\u201d he said<\/p>\n
Song pumped his fist at one point during the delivery and bookended it with a thumbs-up. The smile never broke, either, probably because Song has got a lot to be happy about after finalizing a four-year deal for $15 million on Monday.<\/p>\n
The payday was the furthest thing from his mind coming out of the pandemic. The left-handed-hitting infielder had shown well in his Age 21 season, posting an .884 OPS and seven homers in 78 games, but slipped to a .597 OPS the following year, lost the 2020 season to the pandemic and strung together three straight sub-par years after that as the likes of Ha-Seong Kim, Jung Hoo Lee and Hyseong Kim began to generate MLB buzz.<\/p>\n
Something had to change if Song was ever going to follow his teammates to the States.<\/p>\n
So Song started with weight-training and nutrition. A hitting coach helped him with balance, pull-side power and the ability to catch up to the sort of fastballs that seemed to dog Korean players making the transition to Major League Baseball.<\/p>\n
Then there was something about seeing Kim break out with the Padres that spurred on Song, especially after he followed up a 19-homer season in 2024 (.927 OPS) with a 26-homer campaign this year (.917 OPS).<\/p>\n
Song spoke often with Kim, a former teammate with Kiwoom, as he considered a future in the majors after breathing new life into his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very close with Ha-Seong Kim,\u201d Song said. \u201c \u2026 He gave me a lot of encouragement that I had the ability to challenge myself out here.\u201d<\/p>\n
It will be a challenge for Song\u2019s arc to be similar to that of Kim, who hit for more power more consistently in South Korea before joining the Padres in 2021 and still struggled catching up to big-league velocity before a breakout season in 2023.<\/p>\n
Like Kim, Song appears to be beginning his Padres tenure as a utility player who can fill it at third, second or first base or perhaps even in the outfield if that\u2019s the need when camp opens in February.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been a very exciting player for us to scout and eventually sign,\u201d said A.J. Preller, the Padres\u2019 president of baseball operations. \u201cHis progression in the KBO the last two seasons has been a very unique journey. We see him as a two-way player. He\u2019s somebody that can impact the game on both sides of the ball, offensively and defensively. He\u2019s been a very productive hitter in the KBO who can control the strike zone, makes really quality contact easily and can impact the ball. We know he\u2019s very good as a third baseman on the defensive side and his ability to play second base is attractive as well, and it speaks to his versatility, which is important for any player on the championship team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added Song: \u201cI\u2019m definitely expecting to fill in \u2026 when those \u2026 everyday star players are having off days. \u2026 I\u2019m ready to play every day .. and just getting ready to play any roles given.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Of course, Sung-Mun Song had big-league aspirations. But he was realistic, too. He\u2019d lost one season to the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":468732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1370,1266,3549,1306,7264,62,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-468731","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-san-diego-padres","15":"tag-sandiego","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-top-stories-sdut","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115774209586064971","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}