The Padres and left-hander Kwang-Hyun Kim were unable to reach agreement on a contract by today’s deadline of 4pm CT, according to a tweet from the Global Sporting Information firm. The Padres will be refunded the $2MM they posted to win the right to negotiate with Kim, and the lefty will return to SK Wyverns, his Korean Baseball Organization team. Kim is eligible to be posted again next offseason.
Under the MLB/KBO posting rules, San Diego had 30 days to work out a deal with Kim after the team posted the highest bid. It seemed as if progress was being made as recently as yesterday, as Padres GM A.J. Preller said he met with Melvin Roman (Kim’s agent) and the left-hander had already taken a physical. The two sides “just couldn’t agree on [a] contract dollar amount,” Preller told Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune (Twitter link).
