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| Lee Jung-hoo, who overcame back pain, made his return through a practice game against Triple-A Sacramento in the minor league under the club on the 24th (Korea time). Lee Jung-hoo smiling in the dugout during the game. Photo = San Francisco Giants Club X Account |
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A $113 million (about 165.8 billion won) hitter who returned from injury, the biggest variable in advancing to the San Francisco Giants postseason this season. National League (NL) batting champion candidate.
Expectations for San Francisco's outfielder Lee Jung-hoo (27) are growing day by day with the opening of the 2025 Major League Baseball (MLB) season just around the corner. Lee Jung-hoo, who ended the season early last year due to an unexpected shoulder injury, appeared healthy in spring camp this year after spending all of 2024 with surgery and rehabilitation.
▶ Superstar Candidate Lee Jung-hoo's passionate affection and interest
Lee Jung-hoo, who also performed well in the exhibition game, was included in the San Francisco opening entry as expected. San Francisco manager Bob Melvin nailed Lee Jung-hoo early on as the third hitter and center fielder. He recognized him as a key player in the team.
Thanks to this background, expectations for Lee Jung-hoo have risen tremendously. Expectations are high not only in the domestic media but also in the United States. MLB.COM explained, "'San Francisco expects Lee Jung-hoo, a big recruit, to revitalize the lineup after the 2023 season'Some of the basic indicators, such as a squared swing rate of 37.1%, a swing rate of 9.6%, and a strikeout rate of 8.2%, provide hope that Lee Jung-hoo can perform better in his second MLB season'
In addition, the U.S. baseball statistics media FanGraphs also extracted Lee Jung-hoo's expected performance this year through its own performance prediction program Steamer. According to the report, Lee Jung-hoo has a batting average of 0.294, 14 homers, 62 RBIs, 88 runs and 13 steals, a on-base percentage of 0.351, a slugging percentage of 0.438 and an OPS of 0.789 in 143 games this season. The winning contribution (WAR) compared to the replacement players was 3.9. In particular, his batting average ranks second overall in the National League. This means that he may compete for the batting champion.
▶The question posed by the data, is Lee Jung-hoo a Class A hitter?
However, this positive evaluation and a different outlook emerged.
The Athletic, a U.S. sports media outlet, reported on the 26th (Korea time) 'SAN FRANCIS Worst Scenario in the 2025 Season' It contains information about Lee Jung-hoo. It is based on the premise that Lee Jung-hoo is a key player who will control the fate of San Francisco's season. First of all, it is true that Lee Jung-hoo is considered a very important player.
However, it contains a very meaningful analysis. The media once said of Lee Jung-hoo "There is the potential to do well for a long time. Last year, he played only 37 games due to a shoulder injury, but San Francisco expects him to play as a starting center fielder for the remaining five years of his contract. He has both contact and long hit power, and has good defense."
The important thing is after this. The media outlet "In fact, Lee Jung-hoo was about to overcome the crisis even before he was hurt. This could mean that it was at a critical juncture in the first place"Maybe the 0.6 OPS that Lee Jung-hoo loved before his season-out injury may be the average record (after Lee Jung-hoo)," he said.
This is not something to be taken lightly. Professional players' ability values and average records should be evaluated based on data accumulated over a certain amount. The smaller the cumulative data, the lower the reliability of the average. For example, 9 for 30 and 90 for 300 have the same batting average of 0.300. However, the reliability of stat is higher in the latter.
However, Lee Jung-hoo has too little data left by MLB. The expectations and expected records for Lee Jung-hoo are all based on the previous KBO league and some exhibition game statistics. It is hard to say that it is an accurate prospect.
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The Athletic points out the lack of absolute amounts of such data. Lee Jung-hoo did not play a full-time season as a regular member of last year's team. Prior to the injury, he appeared in 158 at-bats in only 37 games and recorded a batting average of 262 (38 hits in 145 at-bats), two home runs, eight RBIs, 15 runs, 10 walks, 13 strikeouts, and on-base percentage of 0.310 OPS 0.641.
The record itself is not considered to have been very good, and the data is less than 50 games-200 at-bats. With this amount of data, it is difficult to clearly determine whether Lee Jung-hoo is a good hitter in the Major League. Even before completing the verification properly, he ended the season due to injury, leaving only expectations.
In terms of his performance before getting hurt, Lee Jung-hoo can be seen as a player below B grade in the Major League. Furthermore, if you take an OPS of 280 or more and 0.8 or higher, you can enter the ranks of A-class batters. However, since the season has been suspended, it is not known whether Lee Jung-hoo will hit further or stay at that level.
Putting these points together, The Athletic is raising the bold question that `Lee Jung-hoo's appearance before his injury last year may actually be his own ability.'
▶Last-minute slump in exhibition games that cannot be easily overcome
However, scenes that support the media's problem-raising actually came out of the exhibition game.
Lee Jung-hoo returned healthy this year and completed the spring camp and exhibition games. It is true that this has raised expectations for Lee Jung-hoo. In fact, he hit quite impressively early in the 2025 exhibition game. Lee Jung-hoo hit 0.300 (9 hits in 30 at-bats), two homers, five RBIs, nine runs, four walks, seven strikeouts and an OPS of 0.967 in the first 12 games. It's only a result of 30 at-bats, but there's no denying it's a very good record.
But at this point, a large variable emerged. Because of poor sleep, symptoms of back and back pain occurred. This is a symptom that occurred after the game against Texas on the 14th.
As the pain did not subside easily, the San Francisco club conducted a thorough MRI examination and a doctor's diagnosis. Fortunately, no abnormalities were found. Since then, Lee Jung-hoo has been dealing with back pain for about 10 days and returned to the game through his own practice game against the San Francisco Minor League Triple-A Sacramento River Cats on the 24th. From his first at-bat, he showed off his robustness by hitting a delightful double. But it was a practice game.
In fact, in the exhibition game, he seemed to be in a hitting slump before and after back pain. After a double in the first inning against the Athletics on the 12th, he had no hits in a total of 11 at-bats until the second consecutive game against Texas (14th) and Detroit (25th and 26th). He struck out two and walked one.
As a result, Lee Jung-hoo had a batting average of 0.250 (9 hits in 36 at-bats), two home runs, five RBIs, 10 runs, five walks, eight strikeouts, an on-base percentage of 0.357, a slugging percentage of 0.472 and an OPS of 0.829, in 14 spring training games. It's a little ambiguous stat to say that I did well.
Even if the exhibition game is meant to be a condition check, it is a phenomenon that cannot be taken lightly that it has not produced more than 10 hits in at-bats. In particular, unlike in the early stages of exhibition games, where minor league-class pitchers are mainly featured, major league main pitchers appear at the end of the exhibition game.
It is much more important to make meaningful hits against these pitchers. This is because after the opening of the season, you have to face only these pitchers. Therefore, it is by no means a good phenomenon if you wield a hard hit at the beginning of the exhibition game and then remain silent toward the second half.
To put it bluntly, Lee Jung-hoo is a rookie-level player whose ability has not been sufficiently proven in the Major League. It has yet to properly experience the variables that need to be experienced during the full-time season, such as significantly more travel distance than the KBO League, more games, and various stadium environments. Hasty expectations can be rather poisonous to Lee Jung-hoo.
In addition, if the batting difficulties and hitless marches at the end of the exhibition game are not temporary, there is a high possibility that they will face major difficulties early in the season. Will Lee Jung-hoo be able to recreate the skills he showed in the KBO League over full time in the Major League. Lee Jung-hoo's real MLB rookie season begins. You have to prove yourself.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
