11:30am: Lee and reliever Woo Suk Go have both been officially posted, per Alden González of ESPN. The posting window for each starts tomorrow at 7am Central and goes until 4pm on January 3. It was reported a few weeks ago that Go would likely be posted for MLB clubs.
2:12am: The Kiwoom Heroes of the KBO will post Jung Hoo Lee today, the team announced (as reported by Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News). MLB clubs will have a 30-day window to negotiate with the South Korean star, beginning on Tuesday, December 5 at 7:00 am CT.
Lee is expected to sign a multi-year deal, with the MLBTR prediction coming in at five years and $50MM. In addition, the MLB team that signs him will owe the Heroes a posting fee, calculated as 20% of the first $25MM in his contract, 17.5% of the next $25MM, and 15% of any additional salary. Therefore, if Lee signs for $50MM exactly, his posting fee will total another $9.375MM. That’s no small number, but it’s hard to imagine it would scare off any serious contenders for his services.
After all, Lee is widely considered one of the best position players available in free agency; he ranked 15th on the MLBTR Top 50 Free Agents list. While it can be difficult to predict how hitters from foreign leagues will adjust to MLB pitching, the young outfielder’s resume is impossible to ignore.
A five-time winner of the Golden Glove Award, given annually to the top overall player at each position, the 25-year-old has slashed .340/.407/.491 with 65 home runs and 69 stolen bases across seven seasons in the KBO. He plays all three outfield positions, including center field, but it is his hit tool that has already brought him so much success in his young career. Lee has never hit below .318 in a season, batting as high as .360 in his 2022 MVP campaign.
Even in an injury-shortened 2023 season, Lee posted an .860 OPS and a 139 wRC+ in 86 games. Some MLB suitors might be concerned by the ankle injury that cost him the final few months of the KBO calendar, but there is currently no reason to believe he won’t be ready for spring training. Thus, he will surely draw widespread interest over the next 30 days given his youth and consistently excellent performance throughout his professional career. As of mid-November, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported that 20 different teams were keeping tabs on Lee. Those known to be interested include the Yankees, Giants, Padres, and Mets.
Expect the Tigers to be Gun-Ho about this
Where would he play in Detroit? Outfield is already crowded.
not familiar with the tigers OF situation but I would imagine he would be a upgrade
Crowded? Crowded with below average players. Greene is the only decent OFer of the group and he’s just a little above average. Canha is 35 years old. Carpenter had a rough last couple months… he’s more of a DH. Baddoo and Meadows are on the bench on every other team.
I don’t think Go will get much of an offer… he has huge K rate but his walk rate was high and he gave up a bunch of runs.
I agree he’d be a possible upgrade, but I think the front office wants to see what meadow’s has. I also think they want Carpenter in the outfield a bit because they have other guys they want to rotate through DH. They’re also going to get Canha at bats because they just traded for him.
I don’t see baddoo making the roster, but they might also want to have some place for Malloy to play.
Would love to see the giants snag him and Yamamoto. Would be even snazzier if they could trade like Luciano and Bart for Ha Seong Kim and extend him! Dream land I know. I’m not out entirely on Bart he can play backup and Luciano can play elsewhere or dh if his bat is capable.
Would love the Padres to just sign these two and give Kim an extension.
You can keep Bart and Luciano.
Wishful thinking, prepared to be disappointed
Ok Jerry now your chance you ripe turd!
Think…
25yr old Jung ho Lee in rf
Then Yamamoto in the rotation
Ichiro use the force!
LDilbert
Ok Jerry now your chance you ripe turd!
Think…
Then Yamamoto in the rotation
========================
Seattle has the #4 ERA in baseball, and Ray presumably returning, But the #12 offense, and having lost Suarez, Teo & Kelenic.
So why would Jerry want to acquire pitching?
Think.
Don’t they say you can never have too much pitching..
yeah – you never have too much pitching – better to have less
They say that, but overspending on pitching, at the expense of weak hitting, is counter-productive.
What Dilbert is suggesting is signing YY, so Miller can go to the BP, and not signing any hitting.
Oh thank god kelenic didn’t take the mariners early offer!
Fingers crossed, I’m not expecting much though
Yeah this has Seattle written all over it.
69 HRs over 7 seasons? That’s going to make an 775+ OPS pretty hard to accomplish here without batting 285+ here. I wouldnt expect any better than a 3WAR peak based off that in a season.
He reminds many of Ichiro with his bat to ball skills..That’s good enough for me.
The Padres almost HAVE to sign him..especially with Soto about to be dealt.
Seattle is the best fit, Mariner’s should pounce on this guy
…everybody have Jung tonight
I’d love to sign him here.
Did someone hack this site and post silly names like back in the day on 911?
1 team is gonna make out once they figure out who these guys are n witch 1s can play … Kim frm Pads is keeper.
Imagine if Woo Suk Go and Fukudome played in the same team?
Jung Hoo Lee makes my Woo Suk Go
Jung Ho Lee vs Josh Jung?
Wouldnt be shocked if both sign with the Padres, Jung Hoo and Ha-Seong were teammates for Kiwoom and Woo Suk can fill the closer role left by Josh Hader (and Woo Suk is is Jung Hoo’s brother in law)
The jokes that a Jung Hoo and Suk Go can create are borderline limitless
This post only did one thing for me… Make me want to eat some Korean BBQ…
Last year Masataka Yoshida signed with the Red Sox shortly after being posted. Perhaps this week the Seattle Mariners will sign Jung Hoo Lee, another Scott Boras client.. Boras could package Lee with Blake Snell, who reportedly wants to pitch in Seattle.
Or not.
I want the rangers to sign jung hoo lee. I want him to really get to know josh jung and maybe spark some romance. Finally, i want them to get married and for jung hoo lee to take his last name. Just a fantasy.
Ohtani, Yamamoto, Lee all fit perfectly on the Angels
Let’s be real, they fit on any team my friend
I have a girlfriend with the same nickname.
Leave your mom out of this!
Not sure what to think of Jung Hoo Lee. He hits the ball but aside from that, he’s seems to mostly be a defensive player.
MLB equivalent data would show a wOBA of 0.251, 6% BB, 12% K, BA of 0.339 and SLG of 0.176. No power and doesn’t steal bases. Not spending big on a replacement level player.
How does a .407 OBP in 7 years in Korea translate to a .251 WOBA in the US? Seems strange.
@Javia135
Mainly because KBO is similar to AA level ball.
Ha-Seong Kim averaged about a .375 OBP in Korea. He is averaging .325 in the US and had a .351 OBP last year. Yet a better hitter with a better OBP in Korea will have an OBP .100 worse? What formula did you use to figure this out?
Dan Szymborski has written that for most AAA players, they lose about 18% of their offensive ability relative to the league in moving from AAA to the majors. I’m making an assumption that the percentage increases to 36% when moving from AA to the majors. Does that mean ever single AA player has that issue? No, but in general, this is the case.
So… converting his numbers, we get:
BA: 0.2176
OBP: 0.26048
SLG: 0.31424
OPS: 0.57472
wOBA: 0.298
————-
As for your claim that Ha-Seong Kim hasn’t changed much, he was below replacement level in 2021 and was only 5% better in 2022 & 10% better in 2023.. If the price tag is low, Lee could be a decent pick up but I wouldn’t be paying top dollar for essentially a glorified AA-player that might be close to AAA-level.
Its roughly the same coming straight to the majors from AA.
@outinleftfield
What sources do you have for that claim? Right… nothing.
It doesn’t. It translates to about .330-.335
@outinleftfield
Once again, what sources do you have. I provided mine.
Same as yours. Read his SABR articles.
@outinleftfield
Good luck paying for an overpriced OFer. LOL!
Guardians response to these two postings in order to compete…..”We Tu Lo”
Sum Ting Wong here…
well alrighty
Not even sure where to put this, but I got a ton of calls from friends and a few people here at the Opryland have said was in the background on the MLB Network program from here last night.
I was sitting on the far left side of the screen from the perspective of the viewers. I thought I was out of the camera shot, but I guess not.
Pretty cool. I’m a TV star. HAHAHA.
Of course you were on the far left side of the screen. It’s in your username !!
LOL. Of course!! Got to tell my wife that. She should be back from shopping soon. She is trying to bankrupt me all in one trip.
AKA the Holidays!
$15k in gifts and shipping in two days. I love this woman, but sometimes … lol. Really, she’s the best. Put up with me all these years.
I love how every year Im going to put my foot down.
And every year I dont dare.
i’m bored man
somebody do a winter meeting
I can’t even read the title of this article without laughing
Woo Suk Go sounds like something Ric Flair would say to a woman while partying
Some language expert please explain that it’s pronounced exotically, something like “woh sook guh.” Lie to us if you have to.
Lock them both up Padres! It makes the most sense for SD to get them. They’d fill a position of need at a cheaper price than it would cost to get MLB free agents, H.S. Kim is best buddies with Jung Hoo Lee and their first MLB game of the season will be played in So. Korea. Everything lines up perfectly.
Woo Hoo.
Woo Suck, no You Suk.
As long as Yu don’t Suk
I’d love to see the Yankees sign Jung Hoo Lee instead of paying Bellinger, plug him into center field until Dominguez returns, and bat leadoff with those great contact skills of his.
I think that makes sense, but I sense that Cashman wants to make a statement with Bellinger. I am also guessing that the NYY will get a lot of competition from Preller, who is one of the few with a larger checkbook than Cashman.
I also wouldn’t bet against the RS signing him, and putting Verdugo, Duran, and/or Rafael on the block. We were 13th in OBP last year, and that use to be our forte. And #17th in OBP out of the lead-off slot. And of course, he owns a glove.
From what some of the reporters are now saying, Bellinger wants in excess of $250 million, which I think a lot of teams are going to shy away from. If the Yankees do finally land Soto like many expect, I don’t know if Hal is going to give the green light to adding Bellinger’s AAV in addition to the $32 million that Soto is going to receive. The team will need to be under the third tax bracket this coming year. In which case, signing Lee would be an excellent fallback option.
I think you are right. Keep hearing he is asking for 12 years and a 100% raise from the $12.5 MM he made last season. That’s a $300 million deal. I wouldn’t do that.
Also keep hearing that the Yankees don’t have to worry about Soto’s salary, because the Padres have walked away from the table. That they are firm on the price and that’s that. Take it or leave it.
Apparently the Padres are willing to go into 2024 with Soto in LF and the feeling is that the Yankees, specifically Cashman, are desperate to make a deal. It seems as if Ohtani has narrowed his choice to 3 teams, the Giants and Blue Jays being the ones that have been most talked about. The New York teams are out. So Cashman cannot count on money being enough to get him one of the two big prizes of the offseason.
“Woo Suk Go”
-Ric Flair
Padres need to sign these guys and become the Far East West. Kim, Lee, Go, Darvish, Machadomoto, Sotosan, and Tatisazuna. Crazy.
How great this site would be if 75% of the posts were not sarcastic comments and in this case; making fun of names. MLBTR should be a place to have a serious, intellectual conversation but it’s just not that way anymore. Maybe it’s just because 97% fans on here are just “casual” here and don’t know much beyond what a hit is. It stinks because their is no place to talk serious baseball with other super fans. Anyways, Happy Holidays everyone.