Padres still don’t know what they have in Sung-Mun Song after an awkward rookie season

When the San Diego Padres signed Sung-Mun Song to a four-year deal over the winter, there was quite a bit of optimism that they'd finally found their utility infielder replacement for Ha-Seong Kim, who left the organization after the 2024 season. Though it was a rose-tinted perspective, it's hard to blame fans for their hope considering he was the team's lone position player signed in free agency at the time.

We're now nearly a full season into his transition from Korea over to the United States, and unfortunately, about the only thing we can say about Song thus far is that some of those early projections were unfounded. He's only played 62 big-league games due to injuries and a stint in the minors, but it's not like he's forcing Craig Stammen's hand by dominating at the plate.

Still, a sample size of 134 plate appearances simply isn't enough to fully evaluate what the Padres have. And perhaps that's the most frustrating part about Song's rookie season.

Sung-Mun Song has failed to create much impact with Padres, but his floor appears to be astonishingly high

Instead of trying to extrapolate his data to fit a box he's not molded to, let's simply evaluate what Song has shown us thus far in a vacuum.

He's hit for precious little power -- his lone home run came in a historic 23-3 loss to the Cubs on a day when the wind was blowing out at Wrigley Field -- which is the result of awful contact-quality and batted-ball metrics; whether you care about exit velocity, hard-hit rate, or barrel frequency, Song ranks toward the bottom of the league.

However, his plate approach and maturity has carried over pretty seamlessy. He's rarely swinging and missing and almost never chases pitches outside the zone, hence why he's got elite strikeout (18.7%) and walk (12.7%) rates. Even though he's not hitting any particular pitch type well, it's at least promising to see that increased velocity and spin rates (compared to his time in Korea) haven't completely broken down his approach.

Likewise, he's more than lived up to his billing in the field, supplying above-average work at second base, third base, and shortstop according to Outs Above Average. In conjunction with high-quality baserunning (12 steals, +2 Statcast baserunning value), he's proving to be a high-floor player even when he isn't hitting well.

If you're looking for a reason to be optimistic about the future, it's that Song also took some time to adjust in the KBO. Long a patient hitter who got by with solid defense and contact skills, it was only in his final two seasons that he finally showcased star potential, hitting 45 homers and 46 steals combined en route to winning the KBO Player of the Year award in 2025.

It's unlikely that he'll experience a similar meteoric rise in MLB (he's nearly 30, after all), but slow learners aren't the same as busts. Perhaps with a bit more patience, he can fulfill those super-utility expectations with the Padres after all.

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