What the Giants Learned From Jung Hoo Lee’s First Full Season

Heading into the 2024 season, Lee was one of the more underrated free agent acquisitions. In a class headline by stars like Ohtani, Chapman, Cody Bellinger, and Teoscar Hernández, he became an afterthought.

However, San Francisco was expecting big things from the then 25-year-old center fielder. He was the best player in Korea, and, at the end of the day, he did get a six-figure deal without any concrete evidence that his game would translate.

Unfortunately, the Giants had to wait a while to get a true look at Lee, as injury ended his real rookie campaign early. He played just 37 games before crashing into the center field wall, leading to season-ending shoulder surgery.

While it wasn’t a complete failure of a rookie season, as he showed flashes of what he could be, it was extremely disappointing for a team that had a big offseason and real playoff aspirations.

In those 37 games, Lee hit .262 with an 83 wRC+. It wasn’t the elite hitting ability we saw from him in the KBO, but he still struck out less than 10% of the time in that brief stint.

The Early Returns

Heading into the 2025 season, the Giants made another big offseason splash with the signing of Willy Adames. However, with Lee missing the majority of 2024, he was almost seen as another free agent acquisition, as it would hopefully be his first full season in MLB.

That’s exactly what it has turned out to be. So far in 2025, Lee has played in 146 games. That is the most games he has played in a season in his professional career, surpassing his KBO career high of 144.

While it hasn’t been the consistent superstar breakout Giants fans hoped it would be, it sure started like one. Through the first month or so, Lee was one of the best players in all of baseball.

It looks like such a small sample now, but his first 16 games were elite. He slashed .333/.400/.651 for a 190 wRC+ and 1.051 OPS. This was headlined by a two-home run performance at Yankee Stadium that really put his name on the map.

He was the best hitter on a team headlined by All-Stars like Chapman, Willy Adames, and Heliot Ramos. Lee looked exactly like what San Francisco had been looking for when they struck out on guys like Ohtani, Aaron Judge, and Bryce Harper.

A star was in the making in San Francisco, and fans were excited as the Giants looked like one of the best teams in baseball.

The Rest of the Season

Unfortunately, both of these things would regress over the course of the season. Now, San Francisco has been eliminated from playoff contention, and Lee has shown us a more realistic version of what he might be.

With 2025 basically being Lee’s rookie season, it was full of ups and downs. We saw how good he was to begin the year, but from April 16 to the end of July, Lee went through a pretty rough stretch. While he still wasn’t striking out (9.4% K%), he simply wasn’t doing a lot when putting the ball in play. During this 87-game stretch, Lee hit just .231 with an 83 wRC+, showcasing the first sign of growing pains for the young outfielder.

Fans grew worried, and the possibility that a contract north of $100 million was handed out to a below-average hitter grew. Fortunately, once the calendar hit August, we saw the Jung Hoo Lee that fans were expecting.

Since then, he’s slashed .291/.341/.418 with eight doubles, three triples, and a wRC+ 15 points above league average (115). It looks like Lee has finally adjusted to the way big league pitchers were adjusting to him.

The guy who hit .320 in six of his seven KBO seasons has returned, and the Giants can let out a big sigh of relief. While Buster Posey didn’t sign Lee to the six-year contract, he did inherit it. If it ended up not working out, it would’ve been on him to deal with.

What was looking like a red flag for a couple of months now looks like a rookie simply figuring out the big leagues. While it wasn’t an insane first year on par with a 2024 Jackson Merrill per se, it ended up being an encouraging step in the right direction for the 27-year-old.

He may not be the superstar that we saw in April, but a 104 wRC+, 2.2 fWAR, and a strikeout rate right around 10% is still pretty impressive for a rookie. I’m sure San Francisco would love the defense to take a step forward (-5 OAA in 2025) and to see him creep into the double digits in home runs, but center field seems to be locked down for the next four years (though Lee does have an opt-out after 2027).

Lee’s first full season in Major League Baseball has come with its bumps, but it has also shown exactly why the Giants were so aggressive when bringing him over from the KBO. He has shown stretches of stardom, battled through adversity, and he’s ending the year as a steady presence in the Giants’ lineup.

If his late-season surge is any sign, Lee is unlocking the consistency that made him a true great in Korea. For a franchise that has constantly been searching for star power, Lee’s development offers the possibility for a fun and athletic complementary piece next to superstars Rafael Devers and Willy Adames.

San Francisco is hoping that 2025 was the preview to what could be their next franchise star taking shape in Jung Hoo Lee.