Hyeseong Kim needed just one minor league game to prove he belongs on Dodgers roster

The decision to demote Hyeseong Kim in favor of Alex Freeland securing a spot on the Los Angeles Dodgers' Opening Day roster still doesn't make much sense. To his credit, Kim is trying to force his way back as quickly as possible and potentially prove the Dodgers made a mistake in the process.

In his second appearance of the year for Oklahoma City, Kim had a whale of a day, collecting five hits in five at-bats. The outburst marked the most hits he's recorded in a single game at any level since he arrived stateside.

This quickly brings up some questions. Why are the Dodgers punishing him? Can he force his way back? If so, what will it take, and how long until Los Angeles believes in him?

Hyeseong Kim could quickly prove the Dodgers wrong, but Alex Freeland still stands in the way

The Dodgers' logic for sending Kim down never made much sense. The 27-year-old hit .407/.448/.519 through nine spring games, yet it was Freeland's .125/.302/.229 line that garnered praise from Dave Roberts, who said he liked the quality of Freeland's at-bats.

While there's a lot of noise in spring stats, and it's not necessarily wrong to look at process over results, at some point, actual production matters. Kim outproducing Freeland is something that dates back to last season, too.

While his rookie year didn't go as he'd hoped, Kim's .699 OPS wasn't that bad all things considered, and was miles better than the .601 mark that Freeland put up over his 29 games of big league action.

Roberts explained that another factor was the club's desire to get Kim comfortable defensively at shortstop and center field, something LA already introduced him to during his rehab assignment last year, and then entrusted him with 28 times (17 in center, 11 at short) out of the 71 games he played.

Finally, the other reason given was that the club wanted him to continue to work on his revamped swing mechanics in Triple-A, though earlier in the spring it was Roberts who said, “What I’ve seen so far from Hyeseong has been really good stuff.”

At the end of the day, this is all just noise. What matters is consistently making solid contact, getting hits, and finding ways to get on base. The more Kim does that for the Comets, the more pressure he'll put on the Dodgers to reintegrate him into the big league roster.

To be fair, Freeland has some say in the matter, too. So far through four at-bats, he has two hits, including a homer. Not much can be drawn from either small sample, but this will be a battle for a while. The longer Kim shows out for the Comets, the stronger his case becomes, while the more Freeland shows the Dodgers, the more he'll cement his standing. It's a tough break for the KBO star, and it is reasonable to wonder if his time with Los Angeles is limited.