Toronto Blue Jays coach announces departure for divisional rival

On Thursday, reports indicated Kim is joining the Rays as an infield coordinator after a long run in Toronto's development world. The move has been shared publicly and echoed in other coverage, though a club release has not been easy to pin down yet.

Kim is not a random name, he was the Blue Jays' first director of player development back in 2016.

He later worked on the major-league staff, then managed Low A Dunedin in 2025, which is basically the front door for a lot of Toronto prospects.

He turns 44 this winter, and his path has always been about teaching, communication, and details. That combination is exactly why Tampa Bay keeps finding usable big leaguers in the margins.

An infield coordinator job is unglamorous, but it touches everything, footwork, throwing programs, positioning language, and how you build habits for kids who will be in the majors soon.

If the Rays trust Kim with that, they are betting on his process as much as his résumé.

For Toronto, the sting is that development continuity is hard to replace, especially after recent staff turnover on the big-league side. Sportsnet previously reported Kim was moved off the major-league staff in earlier changes, and now he is simply gone from the pipeline.

As a Jays fan, this is the kind of loss that only feels big once a prospect boots two balls in May.

From the Rays angle, it fits their identity perfectly, because they treat minor-league instruction like a competitive advantage. If Kim helps tighten infield defense across four levels, that turns into real outs and real wins.

Toronto can still develop infielders, but losing a steady hand matters when you are trying to graduate the next wave smoothly. The Blue Jays' current big-league staff structure keeps evolving, and that trickles down whether people admit it or not.

My opinion is Toronto let a valuable teacher drift to a division rival, and you never love that tradeoff.