Lee Jung-hoo, Highest Posting Fee for Korean Big Leaguer, Heads to San Francisco

US Sources: "6 Years, $130 Million Contract Agreement"

Lee Jung-hoo (25)'s next destination is expected to be the San Francisco Giants, who have won the World Series 8 times.

On the 13th (local time), prominent MLB insiders such as John Heyman of the New York Post and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported that Lee Jung-hoo agreed to a 6-year, $113 million (approximately 148.4 billion KRW) contract with the San Francisco Giants. They added that the contract includes an opt-out clause after 4 years (allowing either the team or the player to terminate the contract by mutual agreement). Neither the San Francisco team nor Lee Jung-hoo's side has yet disclosed the agreement.

If the reports by Heyman and Rosenthal are confirmed, Lee Jung-hoo will rewrite the history of Korean players' posting system (private competitive bidding) entries into the MLB.

So far, the largest contract for a Korean player entering MLB via posting was Ryu Hyun-jin's 6-year, $36 million deal (an average of $6 million per year) with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2013. Among hitters, the largest contract was Kim Ha-seong's 4-year, $28 million (an average of $7 million per year) deal with the San Diego Padres in 2021; Kim is a close senior and friend of Lee Jung-hoo. Lee is expected to surpass both Ryu Hyun-jin and Kim Ha-seong in total contract value and average annual salary ($18.83 million).

Jung-hoo Lee [Photo by Yonhap News]

Among Korean MLB free agent (FA) contracts, Lee Jung-hoo will rank second in total contract value after Choo Shin-soo, who signed a 7-year, $130 million deal with the Texas Rangers in 2014.

If Lee Jung-hoo joins San Francisco, an intriguing rivalry will form next year in the same division with Shohei Ohtani and Kim Ha-seong, representing Korean and Japanese baseball respectively. Ohtani signed a 10-year, $700 million (approximately 919.6 billion KRW) contract with the Dodgers the day before.

It is also interesting that Bob Melvin, who coached Kim Ha-seong at San Diego until this season, will become Lee Jung-hoo's manager next year. Melvin moved to the division rival San Francisco after this season, despite having one year left on his contract.

Lee Jung-hoo was a superstar representing Korean baseball, having been named the KBO League MVP last year. Since his debut in 2017, over 7 seasons, he has posted a .340 batting average, 65 home runs, 515 RBIs, 69 stolen bases, and 581 runs scored.

San Francisco is a prestigious franchise celebrating its 140th anniversary this year. Recently, it has been one of the dominant teams of the 2010s, winning the World Series three times in 2010, 2012, and 2014.