March 18: Fans can seemingly breathe a sigh of relief as Lee’s MRI showed no structural damage, per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. He’ll resume rehabbing from his back discomfort.
March 17: Giants outfielder Jung Hoo Lee was scratched from Saturday’s Cactus League contest due to back discomfort, and with the issue still bothering him 48 hours later, he’ll undergo an MRI, manager Bob Melvin revealed to reporters (link via Justice Delos Santos of the San Jose Mercury News). He’ll then have a followup with the team’s medical staff. Melvin anticipates having more information for the public tomorrow.
Lee, 26, signed a six-year, $113MM contract with the Giants after a terrific start to his professional career in the Korea Baseball Organization. He played in 37 games last year in his MLB debut and hit .262/.310/.331 with a pair of homers and some of the best contact skills in the sport (8.2% strikeout rate). Lee played 306 innings in center and drew average marks from Statcast with slightly below-average grades from Defensive Runs Saved. A shoulder injury suffered when colliding with the wall in trying to haul in a deep drive off Jeimer Candelario’s bat ended Lee’s rookie season; he suffered a dislocation and a torn labrum, necessitating surgery.
In his return to the Giants’ lineup this spring, the former KBO standout has looked excellent. He’s appeared in a dozen games and tallied 35 plate appearances with a .300/.400/.567 slash. Lee has homered twice and drawn four walks (11.4%).
Time will tell whether the issue proves serious enough for a trip to the injured list. The Giants initially indicated that Lee was going to miss a game or two not because of a back injury suffered during a game but rather sleeping on it in awkward fashion. Sending him for an MRI would suggest there’s something potentially more worrisome at play.
If Lee does need to miss any time, the Giants have options in center. Luis Matos and Grant McCray are both plenty capable at the position. Matos, 23, is a former top prospect who’s capable of playing all three outfield spots. He logged 19 games in center for the Giants last year. McCray played 37 games in center during his rookie season in 2024. Both young outfielders struggled greatly against big league pitching, but both have had strong performances this spring. McCray is hitting .314/.429/.514 with a homer and four steals in 42 plate appearances. Matos is batting .362/.375/.532 with a pair of homers in 48 plate appearances. Whoever lines up in center field will be flanked by left fielder Heliot Ramos and right fielder Mike Yastrzemski.
You gotta be absolutely shi*ting me
Hopefully it was just a bad mattress …
Rendon part 2? Not good.
Worst news of the year.
Don’t hyperbolize too early in the year, there’s a strong correlation to jinxing your team.
If you subscribe to superstitio-analytics, that is.
You’re kidding!
One of the worst contracts in Giants history. Even if healthy, he doesn’t deserve that kind of money. That he slept in an awkward position? Nobody believes that. One of Farhan’s great signings. Genius.
sf fan—
Go back to sleep.
Pete’s View
I don’t agree with sf fan, but nor would it shock me if Matos passed Lee and Yaz on the depth chart.
Dumb. You would pass him if he was disabled. As would anyone
sf fan, if you feel the sky is falling, then get back under your rock
Really “jung” him out to dry with that comment.
sf fan,
One of the stupidest looking comments from someone who watched junghoo once last spring.
You are entitled to your opinion, but your credibility will be judged against how much money you have paid into the team to make that opinion.
sf fan, So I guess you have a talent that even the most knowledgeable baseball experts don’t have; the ability to know before hand that a contract is one of the worst in a team’s’ history.
I wouldn’t guess whether it’s good or bad only 1/6th into it. My mother didn’t raise me to look like a fool by guessing about something that no one can know, and looking stupid if I’m wrong. But you go on ahead….
These international signings seem to never work out for the giants, at least for position players Lucius Fox, Kenzie Tanaka and I’m sure there are others I’m not thinking of.
Yeah, that Pablo Sandoval signing was a real disaster. Lucius Fox, like many prospects, didn’t develop as hoped. And please, Kensuke Tanaka was a minor league signing. Yeah what a disaster.
Are you suggesting, since you believe the international signing never work out, that the Giants should just give them up. Maybe they should just release Josuar De Jesus González, unanimously ranked in the top 2, and some believed the #1 prospect, since the Giants never seem to get it right.
Dude,
He is one year into his long contract. He played 37 games last year and you’re calling him a bum? Get a grip dude. You should’ve waited 2 years to say this.
No need to wait 2 years it’s obvious to anyone with 2 eyes who doesnt have their nose up farhans tailpipe that Lee is a bust
What if you were blind? BTW, Farhan is gone. Find another target. It’s old dude
Farhan may be gone but his presence will be felt until Lee is off the team
Lee is 26, played a small sample of 37 games and has been pretty damn decent in Spring Training. You can’t tell me if he is a bust or not yet. Plus, Farhan’s gone and get over it. Must be some weirdo, non-giants fan that for some reason has a passion to loathe Farhan. Yeah he was bad but calling Lee a “bust” already in outlandish.
Just watch I was right about Farhan and I’m right about Lee. I know its been 6 years since I was telling you guys FZ was worthless crap. The reason I keep bringing him up is because none of you idiots have acknowledged I was right about that one!! All you idiots defended him for years and look who was right all that time! Now ai have to wait probably another 3 years to be right about Lee but by then you will have moved on to some other topic to argue about. What have you ever been right about? How bout a little somethin for the effort Dali?
Ha ha ha. Magnificent. Poor Frugal. Just doesn’t get the credit he deserves……
Better yet. Go be with Farhan
Frugal:You sure seem to need to be right about everything. Maybe just go away and leave all of us “idiots” alone.
Ol’ deadtooth ain’t that bad
Forget to log back in to your SF Fan account?
Were two different people by the way.
I’m assuming this is that Yankees/Padres weirdo troll. Oh well, muted.
Now that he is in MLB he apparently caught the “bad oblique” virus.
Make HGH legal
I’m sure he doesn’t want this either; hope he recovers soon
okay, this is getting annoying.
for you or for the person who actually sustained the injury?
For me, he was given $100M to not play baseball
And how much of that was yours? You don’t even pay a few bucks to support this site – now that’s annoying.
what an odd thing to bring up.
Hopefully it’s nothing. Lee has been having a great spring!
Spring Performance: A+
Box Spring Performance: F
Someone get him a waterbed.
Just a bamboo mat on the floor should suffice. My back has never felt better.
Comment of the day, slowcurve!
MRI shows no structural issues. He’ll be back in April if not sooner.
JHL is starting to look like a paper tiger
lol. Nah. Ultra negative folks are just looking like ultra negative folks.
Or there was a reason no other team was willing to give him this much money and why it was heavily criticized at the time. Farhan made this signing as a Hail Mary to save his job.
lol at Hail Mary. Yeah mate, because execs at that level operate like that. FFS. You are making stuff up.
Heavily criticised by who ? Know it all fantasy league gurus ?
The consensus opinion within the industry was a massive overpay. This website predicted 5 years $50M. There were concerns about his lack of power and ability to stick in CF.
Consensus opinion within the industry was a
massive overpay ? Overpay yes. Massive is you exaggerating.
Unless you have evidence of other offers ?
The Padres worked on him for years and were massive favourites. No one predicted him going anywhere but the Padres. No one. The Giants had a long standing centre field problem. Melvin, who just came from the Padres, is a big Lee fan. You only have to listen to him talk about him. The Giants overpaid him because they had to overcome the Padre preference and wanted to lock in a young highly regarded centre fielder early.
It was a busy off season for them.The Farhan Hail Mary theory completely ignores how it went down and is a childlike mind at work.
The sky is falling, the sky is falling. Not sure I’ve seen so many alarmist posts on so little information.
He continues his great spring on Friday. He’s had 1 injury, dislocated shoulder on a good defensive effort. Most shoulders would do the same. He had surgery and rehab and is now having a good spring training. Had a tight back which will be fine. We’ve all had that before. I think his naysayers here will be surprised at the end of the season.
I’m sure it’s nothing. Sounds like nothing
Did the giants medical staff overcorrect after Correa or something?
As a middle aged man I can confirm, sleep position related back injuries are a thing and they suck.
Great. Year 2.
Is Jung Hoo Lee physically built to handle a full MLB career? My thought is no.
that is a ridiculous assumption
“Full MLB career”…Oh my goodness, no. But thanks to Farhan Zaidi he’ll never need to to get paid large.
Story starts with “fans breathing a sigh of relief” LOL How about Front office?
This reminds me of a good looking third baseman for the Giants back in the mid eighties named Chris Brown who slept on his eyelid wrong and couldn’t play!
The paper tiger lives !!!
You can put down the razor blades, doomers.
There are entirely too many of y’all defending Jung-Hoo Lee’s contract
Ha ha ha. Yeah. It’s only got 5 years to go. Let’s call it now after 12 months. That makes total sense.
Glad to hear it was not serious. He was having a great spring.
Does anyone remember I was right about Farhan being awful? Just wondering when I can get some recognition for that one since I will have to wait a few years to be right about Lee…. Wait if I was right then that means that all you FZ lovers were wrong. In fact, I can’t remember you guys ever being right about anything can you? Would love some proof since you guys run your mouths like you run this blog
Ha ha. You are an hilariously sad man, Frugal. It’s all good. Someone out there loves you.
How’s the weather on your planet?
Frugal-
And? Who. Cares. It’s stupidly unbelievable that you’re bragging about being right about something that, in my opinion you’re wrong about. Sometimes you’re right, sometimes you’re wrong and that is life! And you know what? It’s a massive waste of my time to argue with someone like this.
Beings how you need it so badly I’ll recognize you. I recognize you as a 12 year old and a year from now you’ll finally be recognized as a teenager. Your welcome!!
You sound like you want Lee to fail misetably just so you can be right. He’s played 37 games in a new league in a different culture. Where’s the fun in that rooting for your own team?
Let Frugal vent. He’s a casual baseball fan with limited knowledge. He clearly wasn’t a Giants fan post/declining Bonds and pre-Posey. Even the great Sabean made a ton of poor FA signings on aging stars. Alou, Dunston, Grissom, Klesko, Durham, Visquel, Alfonso, just to name a few. And that doesn’t even count Zito’s monster contract at the time. They were horrible. But he did draft a ton of players that would be the core of the 2010 to 2014 run. More so, he started signing role players and a killer bullpen.
I don’t think the core players Zaidi drafted will pan out like the aforementioned, but only time will tell. Teams like the Giants will be only as good as how we draft, develop and retain talent- given major free agents (hitters) don’t want to play in SF. It will take patience as a Giants fan, and casual fans will lose interest, but that’s the only model that works for most teams. It can be done without overspending. I think the Braves are a great model. They have money, but most of their talent comes from the draft and then they sign core players to extensions early before FA.
I will take exception to a couple of your Sabean’s failed signing. Moises Alou was one of my favorite Giants when he played. In his 2 years with the Giants he produced a 135 OPS+, and 4.8 bWAR. I also disagree about Omar Vizquel. He didn’t hit much, but I don’t care when a SS is that good in the field.
Dunston had his moments and Durham and Grissom weren’t horrible either
But we didn’t win with them was my point. Sabean put people in the seats with those signings, but we didn’t move the needle as far as winning.
You can’t put the blame on players for a team not winning, when those players delivered good production, like Alou who was 35% above league average. It’s like blaming Patrick Bailey, or Matt Chapman, for the 2024 team. Nor can you blame the GM/PBO for signing productive players. The reasons for not winning are myriad. The last and least likely reason are the players that did what they were signed to do.
The Braves cheated to get most of their prospects to put them in the position they are now. The closest comp to what the Giants are would be the Dodgers if you took away all their stars. Not a casual fan and been to more games than all you guys combined.
There are several posters on here who jump on anything negative anyone says and belittle them for their lack of baseball knowledge. There is nothing wrong with being critical of your own team and their decisions especially when they are proven to be wrong. Optimism doesn’t make a wet newspaper swinging softy like Lee any better. Even if he is an average MLB player, the point is his contract was a massive overpay for an unoroven player by a president of baseball ops who was trying desperately to save his job after swinging and missing on all the high priced FA’s over several years.
I blame ownership just as much as I blame FZ but those that defend both are not being honest with themselves and realizing that the Giants are about to become the A’s with owners who are just as greedy and now own all of NorCal. Love Buster and Adames was a great signing. Even like Verlander and don’t hate Chappie but apart from that we have a team full of average players and young guys that wont get the PT they need to develop and prove themselves. Every fan I know would be fine watching the kids play and develop but FZ built a roster that is the definition of mediocre. Only way out is to spend loads of money or trade everyone you can and rebuild for 2027. When we get to 2027 and still are a mediocre team I will remind you guys who called it 😉
Ha ha. You are the one that started the belittling here. We were just banging away and then you come in swinging about Farhan defenders when no one even mentioned Farhan.
Now you are playing victim ? Classic weak man.
No one is arguing Zaidi was great. No one is arguing we will win a WS in 2027. This team is mediocre, but we are not the As. We made attempts at big name FA. I’m saying the only path to sustainable winning is through draft and development, not overspending on FA. In so far that fans want us to sign every free agent, it overlooks teams like the giants need to draft better. And then hope they pan out. Your predications will come true as a self fulfilling prophecy. But your analysis is wrong. We do spend money, we do sign free agents. It hasn’t worked out.
Over here on planet Earth where I live there is a little thing called credibility. The way you get it is by being right about the things you say. So for 6 years I’ve been right and you jerk offs have been dead wrong. Not only that but you were so sure you were right for so long that you lost all credibility. Nothing you say means anything get it? Wrong for 6 years why would anyone listen to anything you clowns post?
Your insistence that you were 100% right and everyone else 100% wrong, just shows that you see things with a childish simplicity. Zaidi failed, but the way he failed is far from your portrayal of it. Where he failed was in not signing Judge, Ohtani, Yamamoto, and Harper (none of which was anything close to a frugal attempt). His offers were as good as what they signed for, but all wanted to play elsewhere. You’re delusional if you think any other PBO running the Giants would have landed any of them.
You totally lack any nuance or understanding of mitigating factors. It’s obvious that you think assembling a winning baseball team is easy, and anything short of complete success is an indication of failure of ability. If you want to believe that you’ve been so right, and nearly everybody else so completely wrong, go ahead, knock yourself out. Enjoy the delusions of grandeur, and slapping yourself on the back for imaginary success. Enjoy that self-congratulatory onanistic revelry. It’s sad, but at least there’s one person that thinks you’ve been right.