Giants set their sights on Jung Hoo Lee at WBC: ‘Whoa, we might have something here'

San Francisco Chronicle​

19-05-2025

Japan had everyone's attention in the 2023 World Baseball Classic; the lasting image of that tournament will be Shohei Ohtani hurling his glove and hat in celebration after striking out Team USA's Mike Trout to clinch gold for their star-studded team.
Days earlier, members of the San Francisco Giants front office watching the WBC were captivated by a young center fielder playing for South Korea. Jung Hoo Lee, the Korean Baseball Organization's superstar with little experience against high-end pitching, had handled Japan star Yu Darvish, already one of MLB's greats, like a pro.
In his first at-bat against Darvish, Lee hit a foul ball into the seats in right before he flied out. In his next at-bat, Lee stroked the first pitch from Darvish for an RBI single. Lee had more in store for Shota Imanaga — a pitcher who'd later become a top starter with the Chicago Cubs — smoking an opposite-field double off him.
'I was a KBO player and had never faced high-quality pitching like that,' Lee said with Justin Han interpreting. 'It was my first time going for a step up. It was nice playing against them, but at the same time it was nice that I got a hit against both of them.'
South Korea lost big, but Lee, expected to be posted by his Kiwoom Heroes the next year, had won the Giants over. Not only because he handled Darvish and Imanaga — there were concerns that his bat-to-ball skills wouldn't translate to the MLB level — but because of his reaction afterward.
'After the double, I remember him looking and screaming into the dugout,' Giants general manager Zack Minasian said. 'I was thinking, 'Whoa, we might have something here.''
The brash confidence, the effortless-yet-audacious play; Minasian, then-president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi and the Giants' brass all felt that the reward of bringing Lee to San Francisco would outweigh the risk of turning a young KBO phenom into their marquee player.
Nearly two years and a regime change later, Lee is transforming into just the player the Giants saw that day in Tokyo. Lee is having a breakout year and has positioned himself as a potential All-Star, sniffing near the upper echelon of the game's best outfielders such as San Diego's Fernando Tatis, Arizona's Corbin Carroll and Chicago's Kyle Tucker.
Behind Lee's 1.3 fWAR is a center fielder with expansive range now taking much better jumps than in his 2024 debut (cut short due to a torn labrum) and a hitter very much comfortable in his own skin. For all those concerns that Lee would need a lengthy period to learn about big-league pitching, he often hits like he's been in the bigs for years.
While big-name players boast lightning-quick bat speeds, Lee, 26, racks up hits with one the slowest. His 68.7 mph bat speed is in the bottom 11th percentile and well below the league average of 72 mph. But what he lacks in bat speed and exit velocity he more than makes up for in his ability to square-up, put the ball in play and rarely swing through pitches.
He's transformed into a line drive maestro with a penchant for power on the big stage. He hit three home runs in rain-soaked Yankee Stadium and another in a series win against the Chicago Cubs, then returned home to blast a three-run home run at Oracle Park on Korean Heritage Night.
The few healthy weeks he got last year gave Lee the chance to make adjustments on the field. Pitchers were throwing him inside and Lee was hitting into too many uncompetitive ground balls as a result. The lefty has an open stance, his front foot positioned 33 degrees open toward first base last year. This year, Lee opened his stance even wider, to 41 degrees.
As a result, his ground-ball rate has dropped from 45.5% to 41.7% and he's pulling the ball for more line drives, from 14.2% in 2024 to 19.4% of his at-bats this year.
Lee's quick assimilation is of no surprise to Giants folks who had been watching his KBO career nearly from its start in 2017. Just as important as the at-bats against Darvish and Imanaga were was Lee's gracefulness at the plate. Minasian, the Giants' VP of pro scouting then, remembers watching a KBO at-bat in which Lee left his feet to hit a pitch in at his shins for a single through the 3-4 hole.
'It's pretty amazing. That type of bat control you don't typically see that much,' Minasian said. 'He was always in control of his body. If you asked him to stand on tippy toes on one leg, he'd be able to do it and be perfectly balanced. Even when he takes an off balance swing, he still keeps his hands in a good spot to make relatively hard contact.'
And that outfield athleticism? It was a huge plus that Lee had seamlessly moved from middle infielder to the outfield as an 18-year-old in his first year as a pro, the same year he won the KBO's Rookie of the Year award. The Grandson of the Wind was raking in KBO MVPs, Gold Gloves and batting titles before he turned 25.
'Starting with athletic players that move from the dirt and stay in the middle of the field — that was all very attractive,' said Sam Geaney, a Giants special assistant who works in international scouting.
Though tampering rules didn't allow teams to engage with Lee directly, Lee couldn't help but notice the influx of Americans in the stands watching him play when word spread of Lee's potential move to MLB. Geaney, Giants' director of international scouting Joe Salermo and Pacific Rim scout Evan Hsueh were among those that pushed for the Giants to track Lee.
'That's when it clicked, let's keep an eye on this guy,' Minasian said.
'I knew because during spring training, it got crazy with all the Giants scouts coming over,' Lee said.
Grace and athleticism aside, what stood out to the Giants was the way Lee embraced the stage. He pumped up his teammates after that double against Imanaga in the WBC and, when he caught sight of scouts watching him, would sometimes wave in acknowledgement. Confident, Minasian remembers thinking.
'He jokingly waved to me at a game I saw in Busan,' Minasian said. 'I stood out in Korea, there weren't many people like me at batting practice to begin with. Which speaks to his personality.'
Now, Jung Hoo Lee mania is taking over San Francisco. He's inspired the creation of a grassroots fan group called the 'Hoo Lee Gans.' Fans at Oracle Park chant 'Jung! Hoo! Lee!' in unison, hoping for something spectacular every time he hits. Lee has often delivered; he's batting .276 with a .782 OPS and six home runs and 29 RBI — despite the slow bat speed.
President of baseball operations Buster Posey and Minasian are taking Lee's influence as a sign. Having slightly scaled down pursuits in the Pacific Rim in recent years after a few swing-and-misses on Japanese stars such as Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Posey and the front office are ramping up efforts again. He and Minasian recently traveled to Japan to get Posey acquainted with Nippon Professional Baseball.
The Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs have been the favorite landing spots for players out of Asia. Lee's success affirmed to them that San Francisco should be a destination, too, and the club has the resources to compete.
'I think it just reaffirmed what a good destination San Francisco is for international players,' Minasian said. 'Hopefully Jung Hoo is a poster child for that and I think it breeds confidence into the front office that we can go after these players again and make it known that this is a great place to play. I know Buster is really excited about spending time in Japan and watching NPB games and seeing where it takes us.'
Lee said he'd 'like to have a Korean players coming into the clubhouse,' and hopes he can help.
'If the team wants me to help, I could support them in any kind of way,' Lee said.
In a way, he may already be.