HICKORY, N.C. — Seong-Jun Kim threw two scoreless innings for Single-A Hickory Crawdads on Wednesday night at L.P. Frans Stadium, striking out 4 and allowing 1 hit with no walks. It was the first full-season game of the Texas Rangers two-way prospect’s career.
Delmarva Shorebirds won the game 9-5 on a four-run ninth inning. Hickory had scored early, with Jay McQueen singling and coming home on a Yolfran Castillo fielder’s choice.
Seong-Jun Kim’s Line In The Hickory Debut
Kim opened the game against Ty Head, the outfielder Baltimore took in the second round of the 2026 draft at No. 46 overall, and struck him out on five pitches. He also struck out Eric Booth Jr., the seventh overall pick in that draft. Both made their professional debuts for Delmarva, Baltimore’s Single-A affiliate, on Aug. 11.
A single by Jaiden Lo Re put a runner on in the first, and Kim got a ground ball to end the inning. He retired the side in order in the second with two more strikeouts.
Texas promoted Kim from the Arizona Complex League to Hickory of the Carolina League on Monday. In 48 ACL games this season he hit .303 with a .964 OPS, playing shortstop on the days he did not pitch. On the mound, he worked 8 2/3 innings with a 1.04 ERA and 10 strikeouts.
How Seong-Jun Kim Got To Texas
Kim signed with the Rangers out of Gwangju Jeil High School in South Korea in May 2025, taking a $1.2 million bonus in that year’s international free agency period rather than coming through a draft. Kim was South Korea’s high school player of the year in 2024 and was expected to be a high pick in the Korea Baseball Organization draft before he chose to start his career in the United States instead.
Kim made his professional debut that August with the Dominican Summer League Rangers Red, throwing one scoreless inning with 2 strikeouts and going 0-for-3 as the designated hitter. He did not graduate from high school until January, then reported to Surprise, Arizona, for spring training.
Rangers senior director of international scouting and development Hamilton Wise called Kim a world-class talent and a world-class person at the time of the 2025 signing.
“The food’s different, the language is different, the people and coaching styles are different,” Wise said. “We have to have resources around him to put him in a position of success. We’re using this next year to get our ducks in a row, so to speak, and make sure that he can hit the ground running.”
At the time, Kim said the coaches, staff, and his teammates in Surprise treated him like family.
“It’s a completely different environment, to be honest,” Kim said through his interpreter, Geehune Kim. “The Korean baseball culture is different. Everything is different. The food is especially different. It took one or like two weeks to adjust to this new environment.”
Kim pitched a scoreless inning in the Rangers’ Spring Breakout game against Kansas City prospects in March. He was the club’s No. 15 prospect then. MLB Pipeline published a revised Rangers Top 30 on Aug. 14, and Kim now sits at No. 8.
Josh Owens Promoted The Same Day
Kim was not the only two-way player Texas moved up on Monday. Josh Owens, the Rangers’ No. 9 prospect, was promoted to Hickory in the same set of moves and also debuted Wednesday.
Texas drafted Owens in the third round of the 2025 draft, 84th overall, out of Providence Academy in Johnson City, Tennessee, and signed him for an over-slot $1.1 million to keep him from a Georgia Southern commitment. He is the son of former minor league outfielder Jeremy Owens.
Owens hit .255 with 9 home runs and 36 RBIs in 51 ACL games this season. He pitched in 12 games, 7 of them starts, with a 3.48 ERA and 24 strikeouts in 20 2/3 innings. Owens appeared in 8 games for Hickory after signing last summer and went 2-for-24.
Per MLB Pipeline, Kim and Owens are two of only five two-way players ranked among any organization’s top 30 prospects. General manager Ross Fenstermaker called the arrangement “somewhat uncharted territory” for the Rangers, according to The Dallas Morning News.
What Seong-Jun Kim Throws
Baseball Savant lists Kim with a low-90s fastball that reaches 95 mph, a low-80s slider, a mid-80s splitter, and a mid-70s curveball. In his ACL mound debut in June, Kim touched 95.5 mph and threw a slider at 83.6 mph. He turned 19 on May 1 and is listed at 6-0, 185 pounds.
Delmarva and Hickory play the fourth game of a six-game series Friday at L.P. Frans Stadium. First pitch is 6 p.m. CT, and the set runs through Sunday.
