TUCSON, Arizona (Ticker) - If Byung-Hyun Kim thought keeping the ball in the park was tough before, he is in for a rude awakening.
The embattled Korean righthander, who had no role with the world champion Boston Red Sox, Wednesday was traded to the Colorado Rockies for catcher Charles Johnson, lefthander Chris Narveson and cash.
It has been a rough past couple of seasons for Kim, who is best remembered for surrendering critical homers in consecutive World Series games for the Arizona Diamondbacks against the New York Yankees in 2001. As recently as 2002, he was an All-Star closer but things began to fall apart for the 26-year-old Kim the next season.
After a rough start for the Diamondbacks in 2003, Kim was traded to Boston, where he never fit in - often finding himself at odds with the rabid members of "Red Sox Nation."
He was 8-5 with a 3.18 ERA and 16 saves in 2003 but by the time the postseason rolled around he was an emotional mess and Boston left him off the roster for the American League Championship Series in 2003. He made an obscene gesture at Red Sox fans at Fenway Park during pregame introductions in the Division Series.
Most of Kim's 2004 season was spent nursing a leg imbalance and he made just seven appearances for Boston, going 2-1 with a 6.23 ERA.
With the Rockies, Kim could serve as the team's closer or bolster one of the worst rotations in the league. He was 0-0 with a 4.69 ERA and one save in six relief appearances this spring.
Johnson, 33, has spent the last two years with Colorado but fell out of favor with the Rockies when he vetoed a trade to the Los Angeles Dodgers last summer.
A career .246 hitter with 167 homers and 565 RBI in parts of 13 seasons with five teams, Johnson would be Boston's third catcher behind All-Star Jason Varitek and knuckleball specialist Doug Mirabelli.
Narveson, 23, was 0-3 with a 3.15 ERA in four starts for Class AA Tulsa in 2004.