The Giants Are Getting What They Paid For From Jung Hoo Lee
After an up-and-down start to his MLB career, Jung Hoo Lee has turned into one of the best pure hitters in baseball this year.
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Jung Hoo Lee has had quite the roller coaster of a start to his Major League Baseball career. Despite signing a lucrative deal to come to the states in the winter of 2023, it’s taken a while for the Korean star to find his footing in the big leagues.
A slow start to the 2026 campaign had fans complaining about the money left on the deal. So much so that they were begging the San Francisco Giants to find a way out of it.
However, since coming off the IL a few weeks ago, Lee has arguably been the best hitter in all of baseball. We’ve seen flashes of the ability in short spurts, but now he’s putting it all together.
All of a sudden, the $20 million and more he’s owed in each of the next few seasons looks well worth the investment. Even if 2026 is a lost season for the Giants, Jung Hoo Lee looks like a major piece in whatever their plan will be heading into the 2027 campaign.
Stats were taken prior to play on June 10.
Past Glimpses
This isn’t the first taste we’ve gotten of Lee finding success in the big leagues. In his first 103 plate appearances of the 2025 season, he looked like a star in the making.
A slash line of .333/.388/.581 with a 168 wRC+ and .969 OPS helped lead San Francisco to one of the best starts in baseball a year ago. Mix in a three-homer series at Yankees stadium, and his name was comfortably getting national attention.
Unfortunately, that flash in the pan would lead to an extremely rough three-month stretch for the then 26-year-old. From the start of May to the end of July, Lee would be one of the worst hitters in baseball.
In just over 300 plate appearances during that stretch, he hit .218 — an abysmal mark for a hitter whose value comes from hitting for average and getting on base.
Thankfully, Lee put together a fairly strong last two months of the year and his season numbers ended up in a decent place. Across 150 games, he held a 107 wRC+ and slashed .266/.327/.407.
It wasn’t the top-flight talent the Giants expected coming over from the KBO, but it wasn’t a bad player by any means. At the end of the day, it was his first full season in MLB after a season-ending injury early in 2024.
However, for a guy who signed a six-year, $113 million deal without seeing a pitch in Major League Baseball, there was no question that San Francisco wanted more out of him.
A Delayed Arrival
It’s not uncommon to see Asian stars make their way to the states and struggle early on in their MLB careers. Consider a significant shoulder surgery for Lee in year one, and it makes sense why it took him some time to find his footing.
Two years removed from the procedure now, Lee looks like the KBO star San Francisco was promised.
His .335 batting average gives him the second-highest mark in all of baseball and his 9.8% strikeout rate is tied for the fifth best mark in the sport.
With an overall slash line of .335/.367/.457 and wRC+ of 134, he’s been one of the biggest catalysts in this San Francisco offense starting to turn things around.
Not to mention, after a position switch, he’s turned into one of the better right-fielders in all of baseball. Lee’s 134 wRC+ is only behind the likes of James Wood, Jordan Walker, Corbin Carroll, and Aaron Judge.
However, it hasn’t been smooth sailing for Lee all season long. A .174 average through his first 14 games of the year had fans discussing whether Lee was even a big-league caliber player.
If there were any questions about that, fans can look at Lee’s most recent stretch of games. In his 12 games since returning from the injured list, he’s slashing an absurd .569/.577/.706 with a 270 wRC+ and strikeout rate below four percent.
He’s also found himself in the middle of a league-leading hitting streak that currently sits at 17 games.
When signed, San Francisco envisioned Lee competing for batting titles and, now, it’s finally coming to fruition. While Otto Lopez and teammate Luis Arraez display some serious competition, the fact that he’s in those conversations is reassuring considering the money handed to him.
What looked like a concerning overpay now looks like a favorable investment. It may have taken some time, but the Giants now possess one of the best pure hitters in baseball in Jung Hoo Lee.
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Written by
Michael Monreal got his start in baseball media when he started his own website covering the San Francisco Giants after playing two years of college baseball.…