South Korean star Lee Jung Hoo set to join MLB team after 2023 season

South Korean star Lee Jung Hoo set to join MLB team after 2023 season

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There may be six more weeks of this offseason, but it’s never too early to start thinking ahead. Next Is it off season? On Monday, the Korean Baseball Organization’s Kiwoom Heroes announced that he would be hiring the MLB team’s current league MVP Lee Jeong-hu following the 2023 season. We ranked Lee as one of the KBO’s 10 players in May 2020..

In a statement, the Heroes said, “After an internal discussion, we have agreed to honor the player’s desire to play in Major League Baseball. We will provide the player with the support they need.”

The 24-year-old Lee batted .349/.421/.575 in 144 games in 2022, allowing just 23 home runs and 32 strikeouts. He became the first diver in KBO history and was named Rookie of the Year in 2017. League from high school. Lee is primarily a center fielder, and in the KBO he has batted . 342/. 407/.

Lee commented, “I’ve been supported by the team since I was a rookie, and I’ve grown as a player, so I’ve been able to dream of playing abroad.” “First and foremost, I will focus on next season. I will put my personal ambitions aside and try to help my team win the Korean Series.”

A left-handed hitter, Lee has exceptional batting ability and is beginning to develop some power as well. FanGraphs called him a precocious talent, stating, “Lee wields one of the most beautiful swings on the planet. He’s particularly good at batting his passes flat and smashing fastballs at the top of the zone.” I’m here. He can also go down and get a pitch like this:

Lee Jong-bum is called “Grandson of the Wind” because his father, Lee Jong-bum, was called the “Grandson of the Wind” when he was a KBO superstar in the 1990s and 2000s. Elder Lee still holds his one-season record in his KBO with 84 stolen bases. He was a former league MVP and when he retired in 2011, he was second on the KBO’s all-time stolen base list.

MLB’s current posting deal with KBO is the same as the posting deal with Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. When Kiwoom hires Lee, the MLB team negotiates and signs Lee within his 30 days, and the team that signs Lee pays Kiwoom a placement fee based on the size of the contract. Submission fee structure:

  • Contracts under $25 million: 20% of the contract amount
  • Contracts worth $25M to $50M: 17.5% of amounts over $5 million and $25 million
  • Contracts over $50 million: $9.275 million and 15% of amounts over $50 million

A hypothetical $100 million contract would have a listing fee of $16,775,000. Considering Lee’s age (he was 25 as of August) and his talent in good positions, we can expect him to be very popular next offseason. The largest contract ever given to a South Korean player making the jump to the MLB is his six-year, $36 million contract that the Los Angeles Dodgers gave lefty Ryu Hyunjin in December 2012. .

2020, baseball america After surveying scouts about talent levels in Asia, the consensus was that KBO is roughly between Double-A and Triple-A. Japan’s NPB is halfway between Triple A and MLB.



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