The St. Louis Cardinals face a busy winter with several important decisions as the club tries to recover from a rollercoaster 2024 season.
Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak will feel pressure to revamp his offense after the team struggled significantly to produce results this year.
Mozeliak has a history of signing players who have excelled internationally, and perhaps he can do it again by snapping up a rising Korean star who is breaking out this year.
Kia Tigers third baseman Do-yeong Kim of the Korean Baseball Organization is having the best batting season of his career and would be a solid addition to a Cardinals lineup that has struggled to score in 2024.
Kim has a .344 batting average with 62 extra-base hits, including 31 home runs, 89 RBIs and an OPS of 1.056 in 113 games for Kia this season.
The 20-year-old is hitting astronomical numbers for his age in just his third season as a Korean professional hitter. Kim has already quadrupled his home run total (7) in 2023 and hopes to nearly double his rookie batting average.
The Cardinals currently have two starters, Miles Mikolas and Erick Fedde, who excelled during their stints in international leagues before returning to Major League Baseball.
Mikolas was a pitcher for the Yomiuri Giants of the Nippon Professional Baseball Organization before signing with the Cardinals in December 2017, shortly after Mozeliak was hired as a POBO in June of that year.
Fedde also played overseas with the NC Dinos of the KBO, where he completely turned his career around by adding a sweeper to his arsenal and making a few adjustments to his technique.
Signing a young hitter like Kim, who is capable of hitting at least 30 home runs in a season, would be a huge addition to the Cardinals’ offense next season. While he wouldn’t replace Nolan Arenado at third base, St. Louis should have no problem adding a hitter with his power to the roster.
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