ST. LOUIS — With opening day of the 60-game MLB season just a few days away, the Cardinals are rounding their 30-man roster into form.
We know Carlos Martinez is officially the team's fifth starter. We know Brett Cecil has been given his walking papers. And we also know Kwang-Hyun Kim will get the first shot at closing games.
Cardinals manager Mike Shildt announced the news on Monday.
Kim, who likes to be known as, "KK", was the Cardinals' most notable offseason acquisition. Now, he's being thrown right into the high-pressure spots of Major League action.
And closing out games will be a bit of a new challenge for the talented Kim.
"During the regular season in Korea I really didn't have any closer experience. But I did in the Korean series two times," Kim said through an interpreter via Zoom interview. "And although I don't have much experience as a closer in Korea for 14 years, I've seen a lot of closers and how they prepare for games in the bullpen. So even here I'll use all my sources so I can be ready for my new role."
Even though Kim doesn't have actual extended experience as a "closer", Shildt is confident in his lefty.
"Low walks, higher ground ball against both sides, has pitches for righties and lefties, the ball moves, experience in high leverage situations... so all those factors come into play that give us a lot of confidence to put him in that role," Shildt said.
Shildt also said it could end up being a more fluid situation in the back of games based on Kim's workload and possible match-ups, but to start, the job is KK's.
Kim, one of the best starters in Korea before making the jump to Major League Baseball, said he's excited for the challenge here with the Cardinals, and also sees another upside to his bullpen role.
"As a starter I had a lot of superstitions, but now as a closer I don't have to go through the superstitions," Kim said.
Among those superstitions, Kim said he didn't eat meat the day before a start, always did sprints an hour before a game he was starting and always had to play catch 30 minutes before he took the mound.
Now in the bullpen, every day will be different. But something that won't change is that Kim will be one of the team's most important arms in 2020.
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