SARASOTA, Fla. — Orioles executive vice president of baseball operations Dan Duquette said Tuesday that it appears South Korean outfielder Hyun Soo Kim is “not going to be on the 25-man roster” when the team heads north for Opening Day.

“I think from our perspective, we had a couple of players do real well in the spring, and look like they're going to be helpful to the team to start the season,” Duquette said.

The announcement ends several days of speculation about Kim's future. The club was quiet on the subject amid reports that it had discussed sending him back to South Korea. The reports coincided with a sharp decrease in his playing time in the Grapefruit League.

Duquette said the team still had to discuss the decision with Kim, and did not know whether he preferred a minor league assignment or a return to South Korea. The two-year, $7 million contract Kim signed as an international free agent requires his consent for an assignment to the minors.

“That's a conversation we need to have with him,” Duquette said, adding that he's not sure whether Kim wanted to return to South Korea.

Manager Buck Showalter said he's had conversations with Kim about going to the minors — the most recent Tuesday with Duquette also present — and Kim was more receptive the second time.

“I think he's contemplating his next career move,” Showalter said.

In 44 at-bats over 16 Grapefruit League games, Kim hit .182 without an extra-base hit, and at least thus far hasn't been the player the Orioles expected. Kim had a career year in 2015, batting .326/.438/.531 with 28 home runs in 141 games for Doosan of the Korean Baseball Organization. He was a career .318/.406/.488 hitter over his 10-year stint there.

“I think in these cases, the transition takes some time,” Duquette said. “I believe he wants to give it some more time.”

“Not for sure,” Showalter said when asked about whether the club knew enough about Kim now. “Who knows? He might decide to go to Norfolk, and really get going and come up here and really be a contributor. I don't know. I don't think anybody's that smart. I just knew there were some other guys here outperforming him and we're trying to take our best 25, which he could still potentially be a part of at some point.”

The decision caps an eventful spring for Kim, who played nearly every day in the first two weeks of spring training and slumped without a hit in his first seven Grapefruit League games before breaking that streak March 10 with an infield single.

Things improved for him in the following week, as Kim's first hit set off a stretch of eight hits in 16 at-bats while he showed some of the plate discipline that was touted when he signed from South Korea.

Kim and Showalter said the better at-bats he was taking were the result of a meeting during which they watched film of Kim's at-bats in South Korea and found he was being pull-conscious, not letting balls get deep and shooting them to the opposite field.

But over the Orioles' past 10 games, including Tuesday's against the Atlanta Braves, Kim made just three starts. In that time, Rule 5 draft pick Joey Rickard emerged as a legitimate option to start in left field. Rickard entered Tuesday's game batting .386/.462/.579 with seven extra-base hits, seven walks and a team-high five steals this spring.

Duquette said on the MASN broadcast of Tuesday's game that Rickard would get a chance to be the Opening Day left fielder and has played his way onto the team.

“He really did,” Duquette said on the broadcast. “I mean, he got on base. He started out playing center, he made the plays in center. He went to right, he made the plays in right. Buck tried him in left and he made good plays everywhere. And it seems like he's on base twice a day. He's even stolen bases. He hit a home run. He showed extra-base power. He just looks like a good player.”

Veteran Nolan Reimold is also an option in left field, and utility infielder Ryan Flaherty played in left field Tuesday to get himself more familiar out there.

Rickard is one of the handful of players who could have played a part in the decision to leave Kim off the roster.

Infielder Paul Janish, who is the team's primary backup to shortstop J.J. Hardy, is batting .295 and has a clause in his contract that requires the Orioles to offer him to other teams if he's not going to be on the 25-man roster.

The fluidity of the pitching situation could factor into the Orioles' deciding to keep someone else over Kim as well.

A hypothetical bench of catcher Caleb Joseph, Janish, Flaherty, and either Rickard or Reimold allows the club to keep eight relievers instead of seven. Swingman Vance Worley and reliever Chaz Roe are out of options but have pitched well all spring.

With each passing day that Kim was out of the lineup, such a decision seemed to be growing nearer. On Saturday, a report emerged that the team held internal discussions about allowing Kim to go back to South Korea.

A day later, Showalter was asked about the report, and said Kim was competing for a spot before catching himself.

“That's not completely true,” Showalter said Sunday. “So we'll see what the next few days bring. We've got some tough decisions to make.”

Fox Sports first reported that Kim would not begin the year on the major league roster.

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