The Braves have stopped treating shortstop like a fixed job, at least for now. Manager Walt Weiss said Friday before the opener of a three-game series against the Reds that the position is a day-to-day situation, and Ha-seong Kim sat out again while Jorge Mateo made his second straight start at shortstop.
For Atlanta, the change is happening in real time, not as a long-range plan. Mateo started for the third time in as many games and brought production with him, scoring twice, stealing a base and flashing on defense when he ranged to his right, fielded a ball and threw on the run to get Elly De La Cruz. Kim, meanwhile, did not play Wednesday or Thursday in Boston, then sat again Friday in Cincinnati.
That matters because the Braves paid Kim $20 million to be their everyday shortstop this season, and they are now leaning away from that expectation because his bat has not justified the role. The 30-year-old Korean shortstop is 4-for-42 with 13 strikeouts in 12 games, a brutal opening to 2026 after an offseason finger injury delayed his start.
Weiss did not frame it as a demotion, but he did make clear that performance is driving the decision. He said he has to juggle 13 position players and play the men swinging it best, adding that the league is a meritocracy. Mateo fits that description right now, batting.319 over 35 games with seven stolen bases, second on the club only to Ronald Acuña Jr.'s 10.
The friction for Atlanta is that the Braves need the defense and experience they thought they were buying, but Kim has not been available enough to settle the job. Weiss said Kim had a good work day Thursday and the team would let him keep working on things for another day or two, while also saying he expects Kim to be fine and to help the Braves win a lot of games.
That leaves the shortstop situation unsettled in the immediate term and the bigger question unchanged: how long Atlanta keeps rotating before deciding whether Kim gets his job back. For now, Mateo is getting the starts, Kim is staying out, and the Braves are choosing production over the plan they made in the winter.
