Padres infielder Sung Mun Song will require about four weeks of recovery time due to an oblique injury, according to Jeeho Yoo of the Yonhap News Agency. Song sustained the injury during a recent batting practice session.
The projected recovery period just about matches up with the start of San Diego’s spring camp, so Song might not miss any time at all as he prepares for his first big league Spring Training. As always, of course, oblique-related injuries are notoriously tricky to gauge, so the four-week timeline perhaps represents a best-case scenario. Song will also be missing out on offseason prep time in general, so depending on his progress, the Padres could place him on the 10-day injured list to begin the season if Song still needs a little more time to ramp up.
As Yoo notes, the more immediate matter for Song even before Opening Day is the World Baseball Classic in March. That said, it wasn’t known if Song was intending to play for the South Korean national team or if he was skipping the WBC to focus on his debut season in the majors. Yoo writes that Song didn’t take part in the South Korean team’s preliminary camp that opened on January 9, hinting that Song might not have been in the team’s plans even if healthy.
Song wasn’t on the national team’s radar during the last WBC in 2023, as the infielder didn’t really start to produce big numbers in the KBO League until the 2024 season. Song broke out with 19 homers and a .340/.409/.518 slash line over 602 plate appearances for the Kiwoom Heroes that year, and followed up by hitting .315/.387/.530 with 26 home runs in 646 PA in 2025.
This put Song onto the radar of Major League teams, and after the Heroes agreed to post him, San Diego signed Song in December to a four-year contract worth $15MM in guaranteed money, with a player opt-out prior to the 2029 season and a club option for the 2030 season. Manny Machado is occupying Song’s primary position of third base, but Song’s ability to also play first and second base should allow him plenty of playing time bouncing around the Padres’ infield, plus the team has also considered him as an outfield candidate. There’s plenty of intrigue in how the 29-year-old will adjust to MLB pitching, though this oblique issue is an unwelcome first hurdle to Song’s Padres career.
Not a good start, yikes. Hopefully he’ll be on track regardless.
blessing in disguise if he misses WBC?
Eh, I feel for the guy as I’m sure he was looking forward to it. Actual world championships are important to players all over the world…except here…
feel for him also. But it can be a lot to move from KBO to MLB (took Kim 1.5 years to hit his stride), and it’s not all about baseball, it’s about adapting to a very different culture. Maybe he’d handle it fine, but having the WBC fall during a critical time in his transition might not be ideal.
Nice one, McDookie.
You gotta love a guy whose name is almost a Neil Diamond song
same old Song and dance my friend
Got hurt taking batting practice? 4 weeks to recover?
Not bad for an oblique.
@McDuffie
Congratulations! 🎉🎉 You won the Internet today!
I’m pretty sure they will hamper performance
McDuffie
Hopefully this is your commenting swan song
The reverend sung young moon
Bang Ding Ow
Wi Tu Lo
I wish Ohtani, Betts, Freeman, and Tucker would miss 4 weeks to make it somewhat fair
One of those guys will probably get injured and another one will probably lkstart declining. It’s baseball and it will be fair. The odds are still against LA this year to win it all even though they have the best chance.
Tucker is made of glass
They only need the guy for October. They could put him in bubble wrap in the summer and still win enough games.
WadeBoggs, I mean, Vlad didn’t hit at all in the postseason until this year. All postseason stats are small sample size anyways.
How do you figure your odds ? I would love to see any Factual proof of this . Or does a random thought pop up in your head and you feel the need to type it ?
“The odds are against LA even though they have the best chance”?
Um, I hate to break it to you, but if they have the best chance then the odds are indeed with them
No. Say the Dodgers have a 30% of winning and the next most likely team to win has a 25% chance of winning. That would mean that the Dodgers have the best chance but probably won’t win.
Thank you, Thonolan.
The Dodgers need a greater than 50% chance to win the World Series for the odds to be with them.
I would argue that they indeed have a >50% chance to win it lol
Song Sung Blue must be weeping like a willow
Probably best for him not to participate in the WBC aa that’ll allow him to go through Spring Training and start acclimating to MLB pitching.
These players are so muscle bound they can’t even swing a bat without getting hurt. Ridiculous.
They’re too tight. They need flexibility training…..
Stanton talked about it when he started getting hurt. I believe he pumped the breaks on so much weightlifting and started doing yoga.
Yup. White Sox demise that way
They’re very toight, like a toiger.
clip.cafe/austin-powers-in-goldmember-2002/dr-evil…
Ho Lee Chit
I Dont Get It
Tatis can give him some pointers on how to speed his recovery.
If I was a betting man, I would say he starts the year on the IL. I think four weeks for an oblique is best case scenario. Realistically I think it’s closer to 6-8 which would put him behind in Spring Training. Seems like the Padres can never catch a break.
Even at the high end of that estimate he would be back a couple weeks before opening day. Maybe on the IL in the sense of a rehab assignment for like a week to get him ramped up since he’ll be missing a lot of spring training, but opening day is 10 weeks away so he should be back to game action before then.
@Herc33 We can only hope so, but I think they’ll probably play it safe and if he’s not back by the second or third week of Spring Training, he’ll probably have to stay behind when opening day hits to ramp up and get more at-bats. Hopefully he’ll be ready to go so we can see what he can do in the MLB.
Say it in a Charlie Chan accent
More like Sum Ting Wong
Well, that didn’t take long.
At least it’s not be Tatis is on a motorcycle accident or the team is being sold?? Well one of two is still not so bad
LFGSD!