Giants $113 million star signing gets failing grade after disappointment

The San Francisco Giants took some big swings last offseason.

They added veterans like Jorge Soler, Matt Chapman and Blake Snell even as they faced some daunting competition in the National League West division. But those swings didn’t connect like the front office hoped, and the team finished out of the playoffs with a losing record.

Looking back on the Giants’ season, Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report has given the team an “F” grade for their biggest contract of the winter, a six-year, $113 million deal for Korean slugger Jung Hoo Lee.

“For the 37 games he played before suffering the season-ending shoulder injury, Jung Hoo Lee was nothing special, operating at a 162-game pace of 166 hits and nine home runs, caught stealing more times (three) than he was successful,” Miller wrote. “Not exactly what San Francisco was expecting from its leadoff hitter.”

In seven seasons with Korea’s KBO league, the 26-year-old slashed .340/.407/.491, with a 23-homer, 113-RBI season in 2022. To acquire him, the Giants paid an $18.8 million posting fee to his KBO team, the Kiwoom Heroes.

But it’s always hard to say how an international star might fare when they come stateside. And a season-ending shoulder injury that occurred after Lee colliding with the outfield wall made his first-year sample size disappointingly short.

The Giants can certainly hold out hope that Lee will find his footing, but if not, this contract could continue to haunt them.

“There’s still a decent chance this ends up being a solid signing in the long run, but not a great start by any means,” Miller added. “If he doesn’t figure things out, though, his contract is going to become all sorts of painful, as the cash breakdown on Lee’s contract is $12M in 2024, $16M in 2025 and $22M in each of 2026 and 2027 before a two-year, $41M player option for 2028-29.”

As the Giants look to reset for 2025, they’re hoping Lee can be a big part of next season and well into the future.

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