Jung Hoo Lee Is Like a New Signing

These of you who adopted Premier League soccer within the 2010s absolutely bear in mind the “Like a New Signing” meme that dogged Arsenal again then. At the moment, London’s coolest and bougiest soccer workforce was managed by an erudite Frenchman named Arsene Wenger, who’d led the membership to monumental success within the first decade of his tenure by the power of his personal wits and Thierry Henry’s legs.

However in Wenger’s latter days, Arsenal was overtaken by richer rivals. Manchester United, Chelsea, and later, Manchester Metropolis. Arsenal had wealthy homeowners, however not Russian oligarch or Emirati sovereign wealth fund wealthy. That left Wenger to compete with a extra modest price range, and his limitless perception that his personal mental superiority would compensate for any deficit in assets.

(I do know it feels like I’m describing the Rays or Orioles right here, however it wasn’t fairly that dire. The necessity for relative brevity is forcing me to be barely unkind to Wenger and Arsenal.)

Anyway, whereas Man U and Chelsea have been making report signings, Arsenal would choose up a collection of equally proficient however injury-prone gamers on a budget. These gamers would then get damage, and Wenger would use their impending return as an excuse to not signal extra reinforcements within the following switch window. “Tomáš Rosický/Theo Walcott/Jack Wilshere/Abou Diaby/Aaron Ramsey/Thomas Vermaelen might be like a brand new signing when he returns,” Wenger at all times mentioned.

It was a foolish, barely credible factor to say then, however I’m going to repeat it in a baseball context and not using a hint of irony.

The San Francisco Giants, underneath new head baseball potentate Buster Posey, are in a scenario not in contrast to Arsenal’s. They’re in a dogfight for NL West supremacy towards quite a few well-run and well-funded opponents, and watching a few of their greatest gamers get picked off by direct rivals. (Blake Snell is Robin van Persie on this metaphor.) Extending Matt Chapman and signing Willy Adames is nice, however it’ll solely get you to date when the Dodgers have Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani, and the Diamondbacks simply signed Corbin Burnes.

Nicely, I’ve excellent news. Jung Hoo Lee goes to enter spring coaching wholesome, and when he returns, he’ll be like a brand new signing.

Lee’s first season in North America was fairly forgettable, principally as a result of it led to mid-Could, which was a very long time in the past. And Lee’s rookie marketing campaign wasn’t going that effectively when he got here down with a case of season-ending Working Into The Wall Syndrome. Lee hit .262 with a 6.3% stroll fee and simply an 8.2% strikeout fee. (That’s good.) However he posted a .331 SLG and a .069 ISO, and produced solely six extra-base hits in 37 video games. (That’s dangerous.)

Lee did hit for some energy in Korea, topping out with 23 dingers in 2022, and hitting greater than 40 doubles every of the 2 seasons earlier than that. However total, within the KBO he produced an offensive profile that doesn’t actually exist within the Western Hemisphere, a minimum of not on the main leagues.

Within the 2000s, solely six gamers certified for the batting title whereas posting a double-digit stroll fee and a strikeout fee underneath 7%. One was Tommy La Stella, who did it within the make-believe third-of-a-season of 2020. One was 2004 Barry Bonds. Mark Grace did it twice — 5 instances in six years, truly, between 1996 and 2001. It’s been 10 years since anybody did it over 162 video games: That was Victor Martinez, who positioned second within the MVP voting and was deliberately walked a whopping 28 instances in 2014.

Lee did it in every of his final three seasons in Korea.

Then there’s Lee’s GB/FB fee — greater than 2-to-1 for many of his time in Korea. Which makes some sense. Lee is a plus runner, albeit with out the Ichiro-type jailbreak swing you typically see from left-handed contact hitters out of Asia. Nonetheless, he’d anticipate to do effectively on groundballs. We don’t have infield hit charges for Lee’s time in Korea, however he routinely posted BABIPs within the mid-.300s there, topping out at .390 in 2018.

I don’t wish to learn an excessive amount of into 37 video games and 158 plate appearances, however it does appear like Lee moderated his strategy some. His GB/FB fee dropped to 1.37; even so, he managed to leg out six infield singles out of simply 38 whole hits in 2024. Regardless of some actually miserable floor stats — together with the whole evaporation of what energy he confirmed in Korea — Lee exhibited some particular bat-to-ball expertise.

See that total contact fee column, the place Lee ranked third? The 2 guys forward of him have been Luis Arraez and Steven Kwan. If that’s in any respect consultant of what Lee can do, he received’t have to hit for a lot energy so as to be efficient.

Writing up the Hye-seong Kim signing the opposite night time obtained me occupied with how energy transfers from the KBO to MLB. Seems there may be principally zero helpful precedent to attract on. Over the previous 20 seasons, solely 12 place gamers born in South Korea have appeared within the main leagues.

And being born in Korea doesn’t have something to do with the place these gamers have been educated. Rob Refsnyder was adopted by an American household as an toddler and was raised right here. Ji Man Choi, Hee-Seop Choi, Shin-Soo Choo, and Ji Hwan Bae all got here by means of the American minor league system and appeared within the American main leagues earlier than they performed within the KBO — in the event that they performed within the KBO in any respect. Sarcastically, the “Born in South Korea” filter misses Lee, who was born in Japan whereas his father, additionally a professional baseball participant, was enjoying in NPB.

In whole, there are simply three main league place gamers up to now 20 years who have been born and educated in South Korea and stayed within the main leagues previous the season by which they exhausted their rookie eligibility.

Ha-Seong Kim figured it out after a tough rookie yr. Jung Ho Kang stayed about the identical. Hyun Soo Kim regressed badly. And hey, since I discussed Hyun Soo Kim, I’ve his theme track caught in my head now. It’s solely truthful to get it caught in your heads too.

So though there’s no helpful street map for charting a hitter’s adjustment from the KBO to MLB, I do have one other particular purpose to be bullish on Lee for 2025. It appears like he obtained utterly hosed on batted ball luck. These mid-.300s BABIPs from the KBO became a .273 BABIP in San Francisco. And even when protection is healthier over right here, I’m prepared to guess it’s not that a lot better.

Normal caveats about anticipated stats apply, however Lee underperformed his xSLG however 73 factors final yr, and his xwOBA by 35 factors. Out of 410 gamers with 150 or plate appearances, these have been the fourth- and Fifteenth-largest unfavorable variations within the league.

I’ll finish on this level. If Lee does grow to be the sort of middle fielder the Giants believed he could be after they signed him, he’ll give them an enormous benefit at what has turn out to be one of many shallowest positions within the league. Final yr, 27 gamers logged 300 or extra plate appearances as middle fielders; solely eight had a wRC+ of 100 or higher in these plate appearances.

And people eight gamers embrace guys who wouldn’t be enjoying middle discipline in a great world (Aaron Choose, JJ Bleday, Andy Pages), a last-second infield conversion (Jackson Merrill), and a man whose workforce desperately needs to cease enjoying him in middle discipline as a result of he retains dismembering himself on the outfield fence (Byron Buxton). The Giants obtained some nice offensive manufacturing in middle discipline out of Heliot Ramos final yr, however his defensive stats at that place have been completely horrific. As in, he completed useless final in fielding run worth out of 51 gamers who logged 300 or extra innings in middle discipline.

Saying {that a} wholesome and efficient Lee could be like a brand new signing would possibly truly be underselling the purpose. Contemplating the paucity of obtainable middle discipline choices, Lee is likely to be even higher than a brand new signing.