With Hyun Soo Kim now signed, how will he fare against major league pitching?

With the Orioles still pursuing outfielders, Hyun Soo Kim now seems like their best option to start in left field. On Wednesday, the club officially announced that Kim signed a two-year contract.

The Orioles must be hoping that Kim could be to their outfield what left-hander Wei-Yin Chen was to their pitching staff when they nabbed Chen in the international market in January 2012.

Chen was signed to a three-year deal with an option for the 2015 season. His initial deal was worth about $12 million and he earned $15.46 million over four years with the Orioles. That proves you can take a chance on an international talent from another pro league and get big results.

Kim, who turns 28 in January, is a career .318/.406/.488 hitter in 10 seasons in the Korean Baseball Organization. He has hit over .300 seven times in the last eight years. He won the 2008 batting title in the KBO when he hit .357. The last three years, starting with 2013, he has batted .302, .322 and .326.

Perhaps more importantly, he has been among the walks leaders in the KBO several times and walked more than he struck out six times in the last eight years. He gives the Orioles a player that produced an OBP of .438 last season and .406 for his career.

Now we wait to find out how much those stats will carry over to Major League Baseball. We can't expect Kim to put up the same numbers here, but how close can he get given regular at-bats?

Jung Ho Kang left the KBO and played last season for Pittsburgh, where he produced a slash line of .287/.355/.461, which was not far off his career KBO numbers of .298/.383/.504. His power numbers did drop way off from one season to the next. In the KBO in 2014 he hit 40 homers with 117 RBIs in 117 games. In 126 games with the Pirates, he hit 15 homers with 58 RBIs.

C.J. Nitkowski is a former big league pitcher who wrote extensively about Kim recently for FOXSports.com. He played with Kim, and knows him and his game well.

Here is an excerpt from Nitkowski's story:

"So what can Kim do in the major leagues? I played with and against Kim in 2009 and 2010, and I talked to a scout who has seen him extensively recently, as well as other players who have played against him. And while drops in what he produced in KBO are certainly to be expected, a .275 batting average with a .350 on-base percentage, 10-12 homers and 60 walks are all reasonable expectations for Kim in 2016, his age-28 season.

"After searching outfielders who put up all those numbers or better in 2015, I was floored at what I found. Just four outfielders in MLB hit .275+/.350+OBP/10+HR/60+BB. They were Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Andrew McCutchen and Shin-Soo Choo. Of all position players in baseball last season, that number jumps to 18. These are very reasonable benchmarks for Kim to achieve in MLB."

Nitkowski provides an educated opinion on a player that looks good on the stat sheet for Orioles fans, who now wait to find out much more about him and see what he can bring to the club.

What is your take on this addition?