Dillon Atkinson: It's time to make a decision on Kim

If I told you that an Orioles left fielder slashed .302/.382/.420 with six home runs over 346 plate appearances in 2016, you would typically be wise to guess that the same player would not only be the starting left fielder for the Birds in 2017, but would also bat at or near the top of the order night in and night out. However, that hasn't been the case for Hyun Soo Kim.

It hasn't really been Kim's fault that he hasn't gotten playing time. Right out of the gate, Orioles manager Buck Showalter committed to starting Joey Rickard and Trey Mancini with left-handed pitchers on the mound. The O's got a heavy dose of facing southpaws - and knuckleballers - early on this season. Mancini hit his way into the lineup and Showalter decided to leave him in against most right-handers after that. The Orioles facing a lot of left-handers and Mancini earning a bigger role has limited Kim to just 62 plate appearances and 15 starts over the team's first 44 games.

Kim has been tied to the bench for the most part, but all this does is hurt both his value and the team. With minus-12 DRS (Defensive Runs Saved) and a minus-7.2 UZR (Ultimate Zone Rating), he hasn't been a good defender in the outfield so far in his career. And I don't need sabermetrics to show that he's not a fast runner and he doesn't swipe any bags. So, at the moment, a bench spot is taken by an outfielder who isn't ever going to be used as a defensive replacement, nor as a pinch runner.

So what do the Orioles do with Kim? He's hurting his value and the team by riding the bench, so that should no longer be an option. There are two options remaining: Give him more playing time or do away with him. The only issue with giving him more playing time is there's no way Mancini or Seth Smith will get any less time with the way they're each hitting the ball, slashing .292/.330/.547 and .286/.366/.469, respectively, this season. So the next option would be to trade Kim or designate him for assignment.

By not playing, his value isn't that great at the moment, so the best you might be able to get for him in a trade is a middle reliever. Earlier in the season, I've said that I'd be okay with trading Kim, but not just getting rid of him via DFA. But, at this point, Kim hasn't seen much of any playing time. And his strong skill set - getting on base - is useless if he's not in the lineup. So at this point in the season, if Kim isn't going to play, I'd be OK with designating him for assignment if it means getting more use out of the bench spot, possibly by recalling Craig Gentry, who offers good defense and speed on the basepaths, both skill sets that can be used late in most ball games.

The third option, which would be outside of the box, would be to entertain Mancini in trade talks. There's a possibility that the Orioles could improve their starting rotation by dealing Mancini, then using a platoon of Kim and Rickard in left field for the rest of the season, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. However, I think the O's may not be all that willing to part ways with Mancini, so I think the first two of three options are the most likely.

To conclude, the Orioles have a good on-base hitter on the team who gets very little playing time. His inabilities in the field and on the basepaths make the club handicapped in flexibility off the bench. It's time for the Orioles to play Kim or move on from him. It would be nice to have some speed and good defensive ability off the bench again, whether it be Gentry or Michael Bourn, whose future the Orioles have to decide after he exercised his opt-out from Triple-A Norfolk on Tuesday.

Dillon Atkinson blogs about the Orioles for Orioles Uncensored. Follow him on Twitter: @DAtkinsonOU. His thoughts on the O's appear here as part of MASNsports.com's continuing commitment to welcome guest bloggers to our little corner of cyberspace. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.