LAS VEGAS — The Atlanta Braves need a shortstop. And they liked everything about Ha-Seong Kim in the four weeks he spent with them in September.

Despite declining a $16 million player option to stay with Atlanta in 2026, Kim said he felt at home from his first day with the Braves and indicated he’d like to return.

Or, as a Korean reporter said to Braves president of baseball operations/general manager Alex Anthopoulos Tuesday at the MLB GM meetings in Las Vegas, “Team loves him, he loves team …”

To which Anthopoulos playfully interrupted the questioner: “Did he say he loves the team?”

“Yeah, he really likes the team,” the reporter replied.

“Oh, perfect!” Anthopoulos said, smiling. “Let’s get it done then. What are we waiting for?”

“But this is business,” the reporter said, smiling and fully aware Anthopoulos was kidding.

“It is business — always business,” Anthopoulos said, and repeated that for emphasis. “Always business. Business means we see what happens.”

Then on Wednesday, high-powered agent Scott Boras stepped to the microphone for his annual GM meetings scrum with reporters, standing before a backdrop festooned with Boras Corp. logos, wearing a pullover with the same logo.

Hello, business, my old friend. I’ve come to talk to you again.

“Well, I think Kim is a hot Seong of the shortstop charts, no question,” said Boras, who is, if you hadn’t deduced, Kim’s agent. “I think the availability of defensive premium shortstops in this market is very, very slim. So if you’re looking for a premium defensive shortstop to play, I think it’s HSK.”

Puns and rhymes aside, Boras is an absolute shark in negotiations, and the chances of Kim taking a “hometown discount” to stay in a place where he only spent a month seem remote.

On the one hand, there’s his close friendship with Braves left fielder Jurickson Profar from their years together as San Diego Padres, and the instant comfort level Kim felt in Atlanta among a genial group of teammates, including those introduced to him by Profar.

On the other hand, there’s Boras’ assertion — accurate in this case — that Kim is the best defensive shortstop and arguably best all-around shortstop on the free-agent market. That’s because the only marquee free-agent shortstop, Bo Bichette, is a big-time hitter — far better offensively than Kim — but a below-average defender.

And Bichette seems likely to command a contract in the $200 million neighborhood from some team that intends to move him off shortstop immediately or not far down the line.

Kim, who turned 30 last month, is 2½ years older than Bichette. Kim has a .242 career average, .701 OPS, 97 OPS+ and 14 homers/60 RBIs per 162 games compared to Bichette’s .294 career average, .806 OPS, 121 OPS+ and averages of 24 home runs and 95 RBIs per 162 games. Each has played seven MLB seasons.

They’re not comparable offensively, but the fact that Kim has averaged 4.2 bWAR per season to Bichette’s 4.5 bWAR says all you need to know about how much better Kim is defensively.

Projections vary on the contract Kim might get in free agency. Some have him commanding $20 million or more annually in a multiyear deal, while others think he might need to sign a one-year “prove it” deal for close to the $16 million option he turned down.

He’s coming off a career-worst 2025 season in which he was slowed by back issues that caused two long injury-list stints during his only season with the Tampa Bay Rays, but he finished strong with the Braves after they claimed him off waivers Sept. 1. The budget-conscious Rays didn’t want to be on the hook potentially for the $16 million option.

Kim played as many games (24) in one month with the Braves as he did in five months with the Rays, and hit .253 with three homers, 12 RBIs, a .684 OPS and 93 OPS+ in 98 plate appearances for Atlanta. Not up to the standards he set with San Diego — he had a .721 OPS, 103 OPS+ and 39 homers during 2022-2024 — but solid, especially given a long layoff before he arrived in Atlanta. He had consistent at-bats and played superb defense.

“Very happy (with him),” Anthopoulos said. “Great guy, great teammate, good energy, good defense, good hitter, fans really liked him, big Korean community in Atlanta, and we were very pleased to have him. He did a great job.”

So, said the Korean reporter, when you got him, you knew there was a possibility he wouldn’t stay longer?

“Yeah, but we just wanted to get to know him,” Anthopoulos said. “We knew he had a chance, the way his contract was set up, that he was going to be a free agent unless he chose to opt in. That’s the way the language of the contract was. I believe he enjoyed his time (in Atlanta), but he’s earned the right to be a free agent. So, we enjoyed having him; he was a great fit for us, and we’ll stay in contact with him.”

Anthopoulos also said something interesting that could apply in the case of Bichette, especially considering the Braves could have an opening at second base a year from now if Ozzie Albies doesn’t have an improved season to warrant picking up his second consecutive $7 million club option for 2027.

The question to Anthopoulos was about whether he rules out acquiring below-average defensive players at a position like shortstop, where the Braves have traditionally placed so much value on defense.

“No, because I think you’ve seen teams — and I don’t want to disparage other players — but you’ve seen teams win a World Series with guys that are not considered elite at shortstop or maybe slightly below average, and they can still play the position,” Anthopoulos said. “I think everyone will tell you, they want to be strong up the middle defensively. But it’s a sliding scale. At what point do you take the defense over the offense?”

Also, he indicated that what a team has at the other infield positions factors in.

“Does your third baseman have great range, your second baseman?” Anthopoulos said. “I think you can work around some things, so you just have to decide what’s the bar that you need to clear. I think there’s plenty of examples — I think you can look at the World Series winners over the years. I don’t think everyone was a Gold Glove-caliber defender at each position.”

Other needs

Anthopoulos didn’t hesitate when asked about the Braves’ priority offseason needs.

“Shortstop, starter, and then we’ll definitely need to do some work on the bullpen as well,” he said. “We have a lot of openings (in the bullpen).”

The Braves return the makings of a top-tier starting rotation, with Chris Sale, Spencer Schwellenbach, Spencer Strider, Reynaldo López and rookie sensation Hurston Waldrep. Other potential options include Grant Holmes, Bryce Elder, Didier Fuentes and Alek Manoah, unless Manoah is non-tendered. A.J. Smith-Shawver is recovering from Tommy John surgery and could be back around the All-Star break

But they still need to add at least one starting pitcher, because:

• Sale will be 37 in March and has a long history of injuries, including fractured ribs last summer.

• Schwellenbach had his second MLB season ended by a fractured elbow in July. He’s pain-free now, Anthopoulos said. But the fracture resulted from nothing more than Schwellenbach suddenly increasing his velocity from the upper 90s to 100 mph last summer, and that has to raise at least a small red flag.

• Strider struggled to regain his form last season in his first year back from a second major elbow surgery, and the Braves can’t be certain that he’ll be the overwhelming strikeout artist he was prior to 2024.

• López, who threw a modest 135 2/3 innings and had two IL stints in his 2024 All-Star season in a return to starting after three bullpen years, lasted only one start in 2025 before shoulder surgery. He didn’t pitch again all season, and there is debate as to whether he might have a better chance of staying healthy as a reliever.

• Holmes is trying to return from a partial UCL tear without undergoing elbow surgery, and the Braves might not know until he ramps things up in the spring whether it looks like he’s ready for a heavy workload, either as a starter or reliever.

As for the bullpen, the Braves might need López or Holmes, or both, to fill gaps there unless they acquire multiple relievers this winter, including at least a couple of high-leverage types.

It’s still uncertain if setup man Joe Jiménez will be fully recovered from the October 2024 knee surgery that forced him to miss the entire 2025 season. Closer Raisel Iglesias is a free agent, and the Braves last week declined options on set-up man Pierce Johnson ($7 million) and Tyler Kinley ($5.5 million), both 34.

Anthopoulos said that re-signing Iglesias is a possibility, and that the Braves haven’t closed the door on re-signing Johnson or Kinley. For now, they wanted flexibility to address their bigger priorities, shortstop and starting pitcher.

The Kinley decision was a surprise to many after he came to the Braves in a trade-deadline deal and posted an 0.72 ERA in 24 appearances for Atlanta. Kinley does have an undistinguished 4.75 career ERA in eight seasons, albeit nearly six spent with the Colorado Rockies.

Johnson has been a big contributor since he, too, came from Colorado in a 2023 trade-deadline deal, posting a 2.91 ERA in 147 appearances for the Braves. He had a 3.05 ERA in 65 games in 2025 but finished with a thud, posting a 7.36 ERA in his last 14 games while allowing 19 hits and four homers in 11 innings.