Center fielder Jung Hoo Lee and the San Francisco Giants agreed Tuesday on a six-year, $113 million contract, sources told ESPN, the biggest outlay for an Asian-born hitter coming to Major League Baseball and a vital signing for a Giants team that had reeled in recent years from free agent travails.
Lee is a longtime star in the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO), regarded as royalty with father, Jong Beom Lee, regarded as the best all-around player in the KBO in the 1990s. Nicknamed "Grandson of the Wind" -- his father was called "Son of the Wind" -- Lee's guarantee exceeds the $90 million the Boston Red Sox gave Masataka Yoshida last year and includes an opt-out after the fourth season.
The New York Post was first to report the news.
Lee had long been tied to the San Diego Padres, where his close friend Ha-Seong Kim plays infield. But after Shohei Ohtani signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers this week, the Giants -- who were regarded as long shots for Ohtani -- stepped up their pursuit of Lee. Over the previous two years, efforts to sign major free agents were either spurned (Aaron Judge) or nullified (Carlos Correa, who agreed to a 13-year contract with San Francisco before a failed physical scuttled it).
While Lee is not in the same category as Ohtani, Judge or Correa, the left-handed-hitting outfielder has batted over .300 every season in the KBO and owns a lifetime batting average of .340, including a high of .360 in 2021. A fractured left ankle ended his 2023 season after 86 games, slashing .318/.406/.455 with six home runs and 45 RBIs.
He debuted in 2017 at 18 for the Nexen/Kiwoom Heroes, going straight from high school to hit .318 and winning the league's rookie of the year award. Lee's best season came in 2022, when he won KBO MVP honors while hitting .349/.421/.575 with a career-high 23 home runs in 142 games and more than twice as many walks (66) as strikeouts (32).
Lee's elite contact ability should help him transition to the majors. Hitting from an open stance -- where he first steps forward with his front foot and then stops as he begins his swing -- Lee struck out just 5.4% of the time over the past two seasons, compared to the KBO average of 18.2% and the MLB average of 22.7% in 2023.
Some evaluators believe Lee has the speed to play a solid center field, assuming he returns from the ankle injury without any issues, while others project him as a right fielder, which puts more pressure on the bat. His lack of power this year was accompanied by a ground ball rate of around 60%, which would be higher than any MLB regular in 2023 except Tim Anderson.
Still, the Giants saw Lee as a potential All-Star-caliber player who, at 25 years old, remains in his prime. In the best-case scenario, he turns into a top-of-the-order hitter who hits close to .300 with an above-average OBP. He'd prefer to avoid the learning curve of Kim, the last Korean star to come to MLB.
In his first season with the Padres in 2021, Kim struggled and posted a .622 OPS, but has improved to .708 and then .749 the past two seasons. Kim, a teammate of Lee's with the Heroes, hit for more power in the KBO than Lee but with lower batting averages, owning a career mark of .294 in Korea.
ESPN's David Schoenfield contributed to this report.