NEWSLETTER
At last check, Korean star outfielder Jung-Hoo Lee suffered a sufficiently serious ankle injury that he had to have season-ending surgery. Given that he was expected to be posted this offseason by his team in the KBO and figured to be one of the top position players available, the injury threw a major question mark on top of the whole process.
Well, the question has been answered. He’s still coming:
Lee’s free agency was already going to be a tough one to peg down, given the unique combination of his young age (25 this offseason), his extreme success in a foreign league, his only-still-developing power, the extra posting fee, and a particularly weak free agent class. I can talk myself into Lee getting an enormous price tag, and I can talk myself into it being extremely modest.
One thing to point out: the last young star position player to come over from Korea was Ha-Seong Kim, who signed for way less than many were expecting, and has played himself into being one of the most valuable players on the Padres’ loaded roster (.288/.384/.451/134 wRC+ this year, while playing great defense all over, running the bases very well, and already worth 4.4 WAR). Some folks want to act like the players who come over from Korea or Japan always underperform and that’s just not accurate. I guarantee a lot of teams are kicking themselves for missing out on Kim, and there’s no reason to use a player’s past league/country as a reason to believe he can’t succeed in MLB.
From our previous write-up on Lee and his coming free agency:
Now, you’ve got Lee coming off a good but down season for him (he’d been huge at the plate the last two years (OPS near 1.000), but this year he was merely very good (.863 OPS)), and an ankle injury that required season-ending surgery. With no time before next season to show that he’s good to go, with no impact from whatever this injury is precisely.
There’s just no way that doesn’t impact his price tag – probably significantly – and I would think it could even call into question whether he comes over this offseason or tries to bounce back next year in the KBO before coming. Yes, his team had already announced the posting plan, but it’s not like that’s set in stone when something like this happens.
It’s not clear whether the Cubs would’ve been involved in Lee, a lefty outfielder who isn’t not necessarily a slugger, but they had been scouting him. In a world where the Cubs aren’t sure they can sign Cody Bellinger long-term – his market is going to be crazy – maybe they would’ve given Lee a more serious look? Yes, Pete Crow-Armstrong is coming eventually, but you use more than three outfielders in a given year, especially if they can all hit.
Plus, Lee’s presence – or non-presence – on the free agent market impacts other players and teams, so I’ll definitely be monitoring this closely.
