The Braves thought they had a bridge at shortstop; instead, Kim’s opt-out shoved them back into a pricey, crowded market.
Alex Anthopoulos didn’t have to spell it out, but he basically did. When the Braves’ president of baseball operations admitted that starting pitching and shortstop are the two spots his front office is “spending the most time on right now,” he was quietly circling the exact fault line that shifted their winter. Ha-Seong Kim’s opt-out didn’t just take a name off the depth chart; it blew up the most convenient answer to one of Atlanta’s two biggest questions and shoved the organization into a far more expensive marketplace than it had planned on swimming in.