Orioles manager Buck Showalter said it was a difficult goodbye late Friday night when he informed outfielder Hyun Soo Kim of his trade to the Philadelphia Phillies. News came from back in Baltimore when Kim had already made his way to the team bus back to the hotel, and the hectic nature of a postgame trade made for a fractured process unlike how Showalter typically informs a player who is on the move.
"It was, and I didn't really like the way it happened," Showalter said. "I'd have liked to spend a lot of time with him, but by the time I got word of it, I had to pull him off the bus, which I didn't like. I spent some time with him. He's going to a place where he'll get a chance to play and re-establish himself a little bit at the level he's capable of.
"It's tough. You go through, you remember where we were last spring when he first came into this country and I think he had some really nice things to say, and I to him. He's a good teammate. I wish we could have presented it in a way for him to say goodbye to his teammates. I think he would have liked to. I know they would have liked to."
He was a popular figure in the Orioles clubhouse, as his teammates admired how he handled his transition from South Korea and the difficulties of professional baseball.
"Hate to see Kimmy go, but I think he will fit in nicely over there," first baseman Chris Davis said. "I hope he gets a chance to play every day. It's got to be tough coming from another country and not speaking much English, to try to overcome all the adjustments that you have to make at the big league level anyway. He really impressed me with just the way that he was able to put together a professional at-bat. The other day, he came in the game and didn't have an at-bat in a few weeks and I was just floored when he hit he ball down the left-field line _ not at the result, but the way the at-bat was going and the way he just hung in there. I hope he gets a chance to play over there."
