The San Francisco Giants have signed Korean baseball star Jung Hoo Lee.
According to MLB.com, the Giants offered the 25-year-old center fielder a six-year $113 million contract. They hope to utilize his skills at the plate during the 2024 season.
The Giants held a press conference at the clubhouse in Oracle Park to announce the signing. Lee gave his opening remarks in English and answered questions through an interpreter.
“I always have loved the Bay Area, from coming here as a young ballplayer,” Lee said, according to MLB.com. “I am here to win, and I will always give my best for my teammates and friends. Let’s go Giants!”
According to The Athletic, Lee also has a sharp sense of humor.
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“Handsome?” he jokingly asked the press room after donning a Giants jersey.
Lee is known for his strong batting ability. During his seven seasons with the Korean Baseball Organization, he posted a .340/.407/.491 slash line, MLB.com reports.
Giants management has described the signing as “a perfect fit.”
“Entering this offseason, our goals were to get more athletic as a team, to make more contact and play the kind of baseball where the industry seems to be trending towards,”Farhan Zaidi, the president of baseball operations for the Giants, told The Athletic. “And honestly, as we looked at our options this offseason, there was no player and no target who was more of a perfect fit for what we were hoping to achieve than Jung Hoo. So we could not be more excited from a baseball standpoint.
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