KBO star Jung Hoo Lee has been one of the more intriguing potential free agents of the upcoming offseason ever since reports back in January indicated that he would be posted by his KBO club, the Kiwoom Heroes. A wrench was thrown in that plan when he recently required ankle surgery, though Jon Morosi of MLB.com reports today that Lee is still expected to sign with a major league club this winter.
Lee, 24, already has an impressive résumé in his short career. He won Rookie of the Year in the KBO in 2017 by hitting .324/.395/.417 when he was just 18 years old for most of the season. He continued to take steps forward in the years to come, especially in 2022. He launched 23 home runs and finished with a batting line of .349/.421/.575 for a wRC+ of 175. He struck out in 5.1% of his plate appearances while walking in 10.5% of them. He stole five bases and won a fifth straight Gold Glove, with all of those attributes leading to a Most Valuable Player award.
This year won’t be the perfect platform season for him, as he’s been a notch below that MVP form. His walk rate went up to 12.7% but he hit just six home runs, leading to a .319/.407/.456 batting line. His 142 wRC+ indicates he’s still been well above league average but not quite as outrageously as he was last year. To top things off, he’s now missing the final months of the season due to his aforementioned ankle surgery.
Perhaps he or the Heroes would have given some second thought to his posting, maybe delaying it by a year, though it seems the plan has yet to be altered. Morosi relays that neither party has given any indication that the path forward has changed.
Lee will turns 25 years old later this month and will no longer be considered an “amateur” by MLB rules and won’t be subject to the bonus pool system. He will therefore be free to sign a contract of any length or dollar amount, with the signing club also responsible for paying a posting fee to the Heroes. That’s tied to the size of the contract itself, with the MLB team owing the KBO club 20 percent of the contract’s first $25MM, 17.5 percent of the next $25MM and 15 percent of any dollars thereafter. That fee is on top of any dollars guaranteed to the player himself, and subsequent earning (e.g. performance incentives, contract options) are also subject to the posting system once they become guaranteed to the player.
This winter’s free agent class is headlined by starting pitchers, with very few impact bats expected to be available. Assuming Lee’s ankle heals up in the months to come and he is posted as expected, he figures to still draw plenty of interest.
Thanks DD for keeping abreast of this.
Double Ds are nice abreast!
Somebody’s mind is in the sewer again, now is this comment relevant to baseball?? You do understand this is a family website. (Hey did you know the Astros have a cheerleading squad, man every MLB team needs cheerleaders, why is it only the Astros who get all the fun? I need to write to my Senator about that.)
Especially loving how it’s the guy with the name “Ignorant Son-of-a-b” who calls this a family platform intended for all people to converse!
Someone told him to “grab his ankles” he did and now surgery.
Maybe he was excited by this, but I’m not.
I think he’s being sarcastic but he buried it to deep. Look at his last two sentences in brackets. Seems strange to make that complaint and then the next thought out of your mouth is wishing your team had cheer leaders.
He definitely buried it deep.
He’s got Blue Jay written all over him
Not so fast. He would pair well with Ha-Seong in San Diego.
Are they known to be friends?
They were teammates with the Heroes
I read somewhere he wanted to go to the Dodgers and interests were mutual.
That was the 19 year old the Dodgers just signed. Lee has not expressed any preferences that I have read about.
Not that it means a thing but he was seen wearing one of those ugly Padres City Connect jerseys with Kim’s name and number on it while out on the town a few weeks back when the Korea series was announced. I would guess that his former teammate Kim sent him a gamer to try to recruit him.
Hyun-seok Jang. He is a pitcher that has not played in the KBO and signed with the Dodgers for $900k.
mlbtraderumors.com/2023/08/dodgers-to-sign-top-kor…
I wonder if his ankle heals up nicely if the braves might want to finally sniff around and land an Asian player. It’s been way too long since the Kenshin kawakami experiment to still be used as a cautionary tale for the braves not to dwindle in the Asian market. He’s young, wont be the most expensive Asian player to land, and could have very good upside. The upcoming free agent class doesn’t have many bats to offer, and the braves need a fix in left field and this just might be it. I’m tired of seeing braves fans not want an Asian player because of Kenshin kawakami, it’s honestly outdated, rude, and ridiculous for the braves and our fan base not want to pursue them because of one player that didn’t work out.
Send a strong scout or two out there to assess Japan and Korean players. It could be a situation at the time where the Braves best scouts did not want to go there the first time around. Maybe.
Braves had bae before the mlb took him away
what position does he play?
Outfield
I think it would b tough for ATL to land him. There are a few teams that have a clear advantage when it comes to signing Asian players due to demographics. And with Asian players unlike Latino players, they don’t have a bunch of teammates to rely on for a sense of normalcy or understanding. If I was an Asian player I’d most certainly b looking for one of the West Coast teams or NYC or Chicago.
That’s not a knock on the Braves or the city of Atlanta. It is just a reality for signing a foreign player moving to a country and culture completely new to him.
I completely agree with your statement, but what gets me is the braves don’t even attempt to dwindle in the Asian market and I’ve heard a lot of fans talk about them not even wanting the braves to do so just because of what happened with Kenshin kawakami. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous and outdated. Yes I agree certain teams have a better chance at landing Asian players because of exactly what you said, at the same time though there might be one that wants to play for a winning organization with a chance at going to the world series while also getting a nice paycheck. The braves could offer that but we don’t even give ourselves a fighting chance to find out. I’ll be honest it’s absolutely stupid not to even try, especially for a position of need. I hope we at least take a look, but something in me tells me that we won’t.
There are other winning organizations in MLB. Well I agree ATL looks to have a very bright future, I just don’t see it being very appealing to an Asian player coming to America for the first time. And for all we know the Braves have approached agents of Asian players and been quickly shut down.
Ultimately these players are human and they are going to seek a situation where they can be csomewhat comfortable in their lives. When regardless of where the choose their is going to b discomfort and a sense of being a fish out of water. That can b mitigated tho by choosing certain locales.
I agree with you 100% I just don’t ever see any reports of us looking at the Asian market. I see articles saying hey the braves should check them out, but don’t see anybody from the braves talk about, the beat writers, nobody. And I didn’t mean what I said to be a knock on other world series contending teams, I probably could have stayed my comment a little more clear. A world series potential team with a core locked up for years and years to come, and to be apart of that. You know what I meant though. And no knock to you or what you said at all. I agree with you no doubt. I just want us to take a look and upgrade the positions we need no matter how we do it and if it comes via an Asian player that would be awesome.
Any chance they could go after Mr. Lee and try to bait Ohtani as well. I get the feeling for the right team, Shohei might not be nearly as expensive as everyone says. That dude is a pure ball player who doesn’t come off to me as greedy at all. He will be expensive no doubt. But if Atlanta can talk to him and be like, “we’re going to be competing for awhile. Let’s make some dreams” I think he might go for that.
@Drew, he has taken the risk to go all the way ti free agency. It is highly unlikely he takes a discount of any kind. He has brought in more $ then any other player in MLB in marketing the last 2 years. He is by all means a ball player like you said, however he clearly views it also as a career and has been maximizing his earnings.
Man acuna and ohtani, that would be so amazing. 2 mvp players turning MLB on their heads. Plus him and Olson smashing bombs left and right. Alongside Murphy, Albie’s, Riley Atlanta’s already historic offense would probably be the best of all time. Then ohtani would add a great pitcher to make our rotation formidable. We definitely should have made a trade for a starter at the deadline considering how it has been as of late and that would be amazing, a true MLB superteam. But that is honestly a pipe dream, but an amazing dream nonetheless.
The thing I’ve heard the most is that he wants to compete. But I think he’d be willing to take a pay cut to make sure he’s in the playoffs and often. He can go and start anywhere but we all know that realistically there is only maybe 5-7 teams that actually have a shot at landing him. He has all the leverage. Too much leverage for most teams. Gonna be an interesting off-season. If they don’t resign him, which granted they could still do, but I bet he is tired of sitting in October. That has to be the biggest thing. One thing the Angels really need to start taking a hard look at is getting Trout over to a corner outfield spot. Him still playing Center can not be helping him.
1. Acuna
2. Ohtani
3. Riley
4. Olsen
5. Murphy
6. Arcia
7. Albies
8. Rosario/Lee
9. Harris II
It’s so spicy. I love it.
He said he wanted to wino e time in regard to the WBC and it was a status quo statement that one says in regards to the context of that particular interview. And he has already chosen Angels once over other teams. On top of him maximizing his marketing earning to the tune of almost $37M last year alone. So any speculation to his desires or wants are purely that speculation.
What is not speculation is he’s risked up til free agency and is in line to get paid handsomely. He has also been extremely active in marketing himself and maximizing his earnings. So the notion that he’s gonna take any type of discount really seems like a stretch. And the amount of $ economists have speculated he has brought into the Angels with his international appeal and the international TV revenue and other international monies, his contract is gonna pay for itself and then some. So much more than 5-7 teams can realistically sign him from an economic standpoint.
You’ve REALLY gotta look up the definition of “dwindle.” Maybe you mean dabble?
Wow, you really don’t know baseball if think that’s the case. This is wrong on a couple of points. To think that a world series ring isn’t his ultimate goal is well, naive to put it nicely. You think he made the jump from his home country to be boat riding in October? No. It’s not about how much money he brings in. He could cost more than maybe the Athletics payroll. He’s not going to a club that is 2-3 years away from competing. He isn’t going to go somewhere and take a chance of not making the post season. I can name ten teams that are locks to pass on him and another ten he will pass on. A myriad of reasons but only a few teams really have a shot and only he knows.
Idgaf. How about that. I’m having a simple debate with people and stating my opinion and all you get out of it is the use of a word that I got wrong. You’re pathetic and literally brought nothing to the table during this talk we all were having except being a grammar policeman. Sorry but idgaf, straight up. Now here’s to hoping Atlanta lands lee and ohtani and that the braves dwindle, dabble, dribble, drabble, in the Asian market this year.
Yes every player wants to win a World Series. That is secondary, their ultimate goal is earning as it is their careers. If you want to talk about naive, if you think that $ is not important to these players naive is nowhere near a strong enough word.
And all this because you are trying to make yourself believe a narrative that the Braves are likely suitors for him….
So are there certain KBO teams that tend to attract US players because of the number of Americans that live near the city?
Going into this year, St.Louis and NYY looked like good destinations if a WS ring was the goal. Things change quickly. Money, however, remains green.
Atlanta has a huge Korean population and plenty of nonstop flights.
You are wrong. Look at the Braves’ current roster and the significant pay cuts that their core has taken in order to play and win in Atlanta.
Ronald Acuna – 8 yrs/$100MM w 27&28 team options
Ozzie Albies – 7 yrs/$35MM w 26&27 team options
Michael Harris – 8 yrs/$72MM w 31&32 team options
Austin Riley – 10 yrs/$212MM w 33 team option
Matt Olson – 8 yrs/$168MM w 30 team option
Sean Murphy – 6 yrs/$73MM w 29 team option
Spencer Strider – 6 yrs/$75MM w 29 team option
Every single one of these contracts are significantly less than market value. The Braves cultivate a culture of winning and players take pay cuts to be here.
You aren’t too intelligent. The players could tell you to their face and you would still try to assume to be correct. I bet you think it the tigers have a shot at him too. Naive at it’s fullest there Tigers. It takes a special kind of you to say that a world series ring is secondary. But you sound so sure in your ignorance.
I’ll have some of whatever the guy who thinks Ohtani to the Braves is a possibility is having.
@Drew, did I mention Detroit in the cities I listed?? Of course the Tigers have no shot him. Yes a World Series ring is absolutely secondary. It is not just a game for MLB players, it is their careers. Do you not comprehend that?? They are not amateur players…
@Judd nearly every player you mentioned signed an early extension buying out their arbitration years. They are in no way comparable to a free agent. They are gaining financial security early and the team saves some $ on the back end of deals locking in a few of their free agent years.
@Drew why don’t u list some big name free agents who signed massive deals at a discount chasing a ring….
@Drew, since you like to try and hurl off insults at anyone who disagrees with your silly notions. Why don’t you inform the odds experts as to ATL’s favorable chances of signing him.
bookies.com/mlb/picks/shohei-ohtani-next-team-odds
There is a reason pretty much no expert, odds maker, sports writer, etc… has picked ATL as a suitor for Ohtani. But keep selling yourself on it….
pewresearch.org/social-trends/chart/top-10-u-s-met…
7th on the list. About 50k people. Compared to LA at 326k, not so huge.
Other than the home grown guys that signed pre-arb, what contracts are less than market value?
@Pads, the only one I can think who has took a smaller deal(that was still huge) was Turner. Except factoring in the difference in state taxes between Pennsylvania and California, the difference is much less than it appears. Also Turner publicly stated he and his wife had preferred to b closer to family in the east. Other than him I’m hard pressed to name one big free agent contract where the player took a discount.
I was just trying to help you not sound like such a moron when you spoke. Maybe you should dabble in anger management.
Idgaf, what don’t you understand about that? Calling people morons when you can’t even understand what I said. You want to talk about anger management, but you know what you did, you know that it was rude, and because you got a reaction you want to turn it around on me like I’m the problem. We are all talking about baseball, on a baseball site, meanwhile you come in here providing nothing to the conversation at hand except to act like this isn’t a baseball site, but a mere English class. You could have been insightful l, said something pertaining to the baseball topic at hand and then politely told me where I went wrong with my statement. But nope you directly involved yourself in a baseball conversation to bash on me because of the use of a word. That’s what trolls do. There are way too many people like you on this site that discuss nothing baseball related but are quick to be a troll and grammar policemen. It’s getting old dealing with people like you on this site, so if me being angry about it makes me a moron who needs anger management classes just for standing up to a troll like you, so be it. Get a life and start posting about baseball, like I said, on a baseball site, and stop acting like your world came crashing down because someone used a word wrong. Yeah I’m mad, I’m mad that this site does absolutely nothing about trolls, and like I said, idgaf, idgaf about you, idgaf about your insight of a word that was used wrong, and I definitely don’t gaf about trolls like you ruining baseball fans time on this baseball site. Now where do I sign up for those anger management classes? Moron!
@Pads Fan
Thanks for that insight. Korean population in Atlanta isnt huge when compared to the city with the largest Korean population outside of Korea…
CF the past 3 seasons. Strong arm, good instincts and jumps, makes all the plays he gets to, somewhat limited range for a CF. If he had shown more power I would say he is better suited to a corner OF spot, especially RF because of his arm.
LF , CF, RF mainly Left field
Lee has played exclusively CF the last 3 seasons.
Lee is a tough guy to forecast what type of contract he’ll be offered by MLB teams. While he’s young and hits for average with a high OBP, his power numbers in the KBO, specifically HRs, are well below what most clubs look for. Even with gold glove caliber defense, he’s a couple of tiers below Suzuki & Yoshida when it comes to contract value. I could see teams offering him 5/$60M or somewhere in that range.
If he feels like he can truly succeed in MLB, it might be smart of him to only sign a 3 year deal in the $35M – $40M range. That way, if he is successful, he would be a free agent again at age 29 and could secure a very lucrative contract. The flip side is that if he doesn’t do well in MLB, he’ll have left considerable money on the table by not taking 5 years to start with. It will be interesting to see what his market will be should he end up being posted.
I think 4/40 not including the posting fee sounds about right. Look at Ha-Seong, also elite in Korea before coming over, he got 4/28 a few years back and it’s been a bargain for the padres
I would think that Kim’s contact would be a good comp for Lee. Something around 4/28.
While Lee plays good defense and hits for average in the KBO, his power is far below what Kim produced there. Kim’s platform year in the KBO was 30 HR in his age 24 season.
2 reasons I think he’ll get more than Kim’s 4/28:
1) Lee’s career OPS in the KBO (7 seasons) is .898. Kim’s career OPS in the KBO (also 7 seasons) was .868. Their KBO career slugging % is nearly identical, at .491 and .493, respectively.
2) Kim’s recent rise likely has a few GMs upset they didn’t sign him. 4/40 is a drop in the bucket for a guy who could develop into one of the best contact hitters in the game.
Kim’s recent rise likely has a few GMs upset they didn’t sign him.
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That’s it, imo. The reason he will get more than Kim, is because of Kim.
Haha as sad as it sounds, I’m in the same boat, Joe.
Spent the day at the Red Sox ST complex watching a friend’s son play and talking to people. We were sitting across the aisle from and directly behind a group of 8 scouts and we got them talking about a number of players. The consensus on Lee was that because of Kim he would likely get another year at a similar AAV or slightly higher. Lee is an OF not an infielder so most but not all felt that combined with his lack of power would hold his value down.
We also got them arguing about what team would sign him. They were like fans once it came to that question. The consensus was a west coast team, Padres and Dodgers were both mentioned, or the Cubs or Mets.
It will be interesting to see how it goes. The KBO had long been considered a lower level of play than the NPB but the emergence of Kim may have changed that.
All of the teams you mentioned have had scouts in Korea to watch Lee. Eppler was spotted at Heroes games on the same trip that he scouted Yamamoto in Japan. There have also been articles that the Giants sent scouts to watch him play, so add him to that list of probable landing spots.
si.com/mlb/giants/rumors/sf-giants-scouting-jung-h…
I think Lee will get more than Kim but not because of Kim. I think he will get more because there are so few quality bats that will be on the FA market.
My guesstimate is 5/40-45
Is there a comp to a current mlb player skill set and stat wise he compares to?
@Perksy Ha-Seong Kim and maybe even that Korean shortstop the Pirates had who got caught with a DUI
Jung-ho Kang?
Jung-ho Kang
Those are terrible comps
Perksy11 hours ago
Is there a comp to a current mlb player skill set
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Kim is almost a perfect comparison. They were teammates for 4 years. Lee is younger, so you need make an allowance, but in Kim’s final two KBO seasons, his OPS was about .900. In the same two seasons, Lee has about a .882. And Lee was only 20 & 21. He’s developed more power since then.
So the offensive stats are almost identical. Maybe a little more power for Kim and a little better bat control for Lee.
Kim started off pretty slowly in the US, but now might be the best SS in MLB, assuming he was allowed to play SS.
Bottom line-If he duplicated Kim’s 107+, with GG-level OF defense, he’d be pretty good.
Kim came to the US after his age 24 season. Lee will be coming to the US after his age 24 season.
Kim’s final two seasons were an .880 OPS and .921 OPS and .901 OPS for the two seasons
Lee’s final two seasons are .996 and .863 in the shortened 2023 season. A slightly higher OPS for Lee in those two seasons combined.
Kim’s power at that age was slightly higher with 19 and 30 HRs and a .510 slg his final two seasons in the KBO while Lee had 23 Hr last season and 6 HRs in 2/3 of the season this year with a .495 slg.
Lee puts the ball in play more than Kim did. Kim had both a higher percentage of SO and of BB in his final two seasons in the KBO than Lee has the past two seasons.
Kim has much more speed than Lee does. In the KBO Kim had 56 stolen bases in his final two seasons while Lee had 5 last season and 6 this season.
They are still a good comp for each other.
You can YouTube his swing, Perksy (Ichiro-like)… but maybe his best current comp would be Nimmo. Going back a lil, maybe Steve Finley.
Steve Finley had one season where he slugged a lot, but if I remember correctly he wasn’t really a slugger more of a line drive hitter. Interesting comps though will have to YouTube his swing.
The comp I have read the most in scouting reports is former Oriole and Brave Nick Markakis,
Betting the Marlins are all in on this ankle breaker!
He won’t sign with the Giants, as he apparently is talented and Farhan only signs mediocre and below free agents.
The Giants sent scouts to see him several times this season. twice in camp and once in the regular season that has been reported in the media. I wouldn’t count them out.
A good comp would be Yoshida of the Red Sox. Yoshida has more power, but Lee has more speed, better defense and plays CF.
Both hit well, have low strike out totals, good walk totals. Great average and OBP. Lefty hitters.
He’s going to the Dodgers.
If you are going to continue mentioning KBO Gold Gloves, please add context. It is a totally different award than MLB’s Gold Glove (it’s for best player at that position, not best defender; there is a GG award for DH)
This is the kind of hitter the Brewers need, but I’m not sure they’d pull it off. They play a bit risky with guys like Winker, Renfroe, Perkins, Avi Garcia, so they are a bit more enamored with power potential than I’d like. I’d prefer them to spot in a few more like this guy who can get on base and keep the strikeouts down. Doesn’t mean he’ll walk into MLB and keep that level of production of course, but I like the mindset
let’s go yankees
This guy should be the Yankees top priority. A lefty CF who gets on base at a very high rate. Exactly what they need to replace Bader.
Gets on base, isn’t slugging his way to each at bat, and he’s 24/25 years old, Yankees need to get younger too
If Scott Harris is serious, then the Tigers desperately need to go out & get him.