Under-the-radar Gold Glover could be the Twins' answer to roster woes

What can the Twins do this offseason to make actual improvements? Unfortunately, there is already speculation that the club could do nothing this winter (besides potentially trade away some of their best players).

But if Minnesota were to add depth and/or legitimate players to the roster for the 2026 season, where would they look to build? One position that could use depth is shortstop, or just an overall strong infielder. Brooks Lee is currently slated to be the starting shortstop again, but he might not be the every day answer for Minnesota, especially if top prospect Kaelen Culpepper isn't ready any time soon.

The Twins can do better than Lee as the sole shortstop, who owns a -1.0 bWAR through 189 career games. One guy who can help out in this area is free agent Ha-Seong Kim. Experts have him down as a free agent worth investing in, and even if Lee eats up most of the playing time at shortstop, Kim can play all over the infield. He's the perfect security blanket.

Minnesota Twins should look into signing free agent shortstop Ha-Seong Kim

Kim could wind up falling into the Twins' lap, too. Top teams are salivating at the chance of acquiring Bo Bichette, and while that is happening, Minnesota can swoop in to offer Kim a decent deal. He'll probably be worth somewhere in the $16 million range per season. Kim probably deserves a contract in the 2-3 year range, too. That's definitely within Minnesota's spending budget.

A setback for the 30-year-old Kim is that he is coming off a season with two worrisome injuries. He spent most of the year recovering from shoulder surgery on his throwing arm, and he also hit the injured list with lower back issues later in the year.

There's reason to believe that Kim is fully healthy now and will be ready to play every day in 2026. And if he does, Kim is an extremely productive player. In 2024, Kim measured with the best in chase rate, walk rate, sprint speed, and OAA. He is a true all-around player with defensive versatility. He is not going to be everyone's No. 1 choice this offseason due to his injuries this year, but he still has the chops to contribute at a high rate.

Excluding an injury-riddled 2025 season, here is a season-by-season bWAR delivered by Kim in his first four full MLB campaigns: 2.1, 5.0, 5.4, 2.6.

This is also a small sample size, but Kim is batting 3-for-10 at Target Field for his career with two stolen bases. We're not going to rush and say he is a Hall of Famer (but we'll still feed the delusion), but we like those numbers as it is.

At the end of the day, if Brooks Lee winds up panning out as an every day shortstop, there is room for Kim - a 2022 Gold Glove Award winner - to play around the diamond. If Lee falters, then Kim could be right there and take over. That's worth the investment.