Lee Jung-hoo in his second year, the rookie season is over → a fierce media warning. What you won't see on the field if you can't get over it

Feb 13, 2025

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The U.S. media standards have become stricter for Lee Jung-hoo (San Francisco Giants), who became a major league 'second year'. It is no longer time to blame 'adaptation period'.

The U.S. sports media 'The Athletic' cited the core tasks of each club on the 13th (Korea time) 'A desperate question for all 30 MLB teams going into spring training'

As for San Francisco, the topic was 'Will Lee Jung-hoo be a backup agent or a star player?'

The Athletic signed a six-year, $113 million (about 165 billion won) contract with Lee Jung-hoo in 2023. This is the money paid to the star player. The biggest amount guaranteed to a Korean-born player is...' he stressed.

Lee Jung-hoo was injured early last season, so he couldn't even show anything properly. Lee Jung-hoo was 38 for 145 with 158 at-bats in 37 games, 2 home runs, a 262 batting average, a 311 on-base percentage, a 331 slugging percentage

The Athletic said `Lee Jung-hoo hit .340 in seven seasons in Korea. San Francisco officials knew that Lee Jung-hoo's first season would be a period of adjustment.

The debut season is okay, but from this year, in the second year, he has to pay 'body value'.

The Athletic ended Lee Jung-hoo's first season after 37 games. Still, coaches and colleagues judged that Lee Jung-hoo's performance was steadily improving every week. Accordingly, Lee Jung-hoo is expected to take over the lead-off with the starting center fielder this season.

The Athletic insisted that Lee Jung-hoo should develop further in terms of offense.

How much is it worth in baseball today if extreme contact hitters can't compensate for their long-shot power? Can he turn into a productive hitter? More importantly, will he be able to stay in the stadium?' made a cold diagnosis of reality.

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He warned that he could not survive as a major league leadoff with a so-called 'tick' batter that produces only a single hit.

First of all, the official Major League website MLB.com predicted Lee Jung-hoo as the first batter of the opening game.

MLB.com added 'Lee Jung-hoo was San Francisco's biggest free agent in the offseason last year. However, he injured his shoulder in May and ended the season early'

MLB.com will participate 100% in spring training after this. If he can recover the offense that made him a star player for seven seasons in the KBO League, San Francisco will get a big boost.'"

This article was translated by Naver AI translator.