Have the Giants finally found their star in Jung Hoo Lee?

For years, San Francisco giants, the powerful changes in persecution or a toleter superstar to build.

And Olfaron.

They fell short at the Bryce Harper draw in February 2019, they failed to attract the natives of northern California and the Yankees captain, Aaron, to the bay area in December 2022, then finally gave their type of after Fememia in the Bolus of Agmanos. A year after that, they return empty again in their search or shohei ohtani.

If the first month of the 2025 season is an indication, perhaps the winds of change are on us.

Perhaps, the “grandson of the wind” could provide the solution.

Unable to land the central slugging piece they covered a year ago, the giants show a bet on a player with a different type of offensive profile. Only three days after Ohtani announced his decision to go to Los Angeles, San Francisco turned Jung Hoo Lee, an MVP gardener of the Korean baseball organization known more for his elite contact skills than his pop on the plate.

Lee came from the royalty of Korean baseball. His father, Jong Beom Lee, nicknamed “son of the wind”, was a legend of Kbo. That created large shoes to fill for the young Lee, who broke into the KBO at age 18. I was not suffocated by high expectations. Hey hit .324 as a rookie and prosecuted .340 with more walks than stucks about his seven -year career in Kbo.

The nickname “grandson of the wind” stayed.

“In the past, I would say there was a small pressure,” Lee said last week through his interpreter, Justin Han. “I am so accustomed now.”

He has not moved away from nickname. It is what How it appeared For the giants, after signing a six -year contract and $ 113 million last December and became the hitter born in Korean best paid in the history of the MLB.

Lee’s -oriented approach did it unlike most nine -digit winners. In his best season as a 23 -year -old in 2022, Lee hit .349 and launched 23 homers for the Kiwoom heroes. But he averaged less than 10 homosexual people per season, and although no one doubted their discipline on the plate or skill skills, there were questions about their ability to hit power and reach the launch of the major leagues.

Those questions were still delayed after their abbreviated debut season.

The San Francisco players and coaches who saw Lee in 2024 saw their ability to drive baseball in batting practice, but fought to constantly take that ability to the games. He hit .262, but he was hitting alone .331 and hitting 17% below the league average by WRC+ when he crashed into the wall in the central garden in Oracle Park and dislocated his shoulder, finishing his season on May 12.

The manager of the giants, Bob Melvin, believes that he reads, whose expected statistics were much better than the real numbers he produced last year, was “a bit unfortunate.” But for 37 games last year, which reads only six extra-base successes, it seemed that giants could have paid excessively.

With 16 extra-base successes in 25 games in 2025, it no longer appears that way.

Lee has become the face of the resurgence of the giants this season. The team is 17-9, tied in the second largest number of victories in the National League, while Lee is tied in the advantage of the major leagues in doubles and occupies the top 10 in the average batting and wins above the replacement.

“He is one of the five best players in the league, in my opinion,” said the giant player Tyler Fitzgerald to Fox Sports last week.

Two weeks ago, Lee made a power exhibition in an effort by several homers at Yankee Stadium. The flourishing star of the giants ended the series with three homers, and although it is worth noting that they are still its only three homers of the season, the performance in New York tested an example of the increase in the increase in the power of the side of the attraction that is being able to generate in its second season.

“If I cut a ball, you can drive it,” Melvin said. “We have seen it drive everything.”

And yet, it is still the supernatural contact skills of Lee that separate it. A day break last week left Fitzgerald particularly to Awstruck.

On April 17, Lee sat during the first eight tickets. He came out in the ninth to face the Filis Flamethrowing Southpaw Jose Alvarado. The reliever splashed the outer corner with a fast ball of 100.3 mph. Lee cut the launch in the middle for a base blow.

It was one of the two hits that Alvarado has surrendered to a left -handed batter throughout the season; Leeward hash Both Or them.

“It’s crazy,” said Fitzgerald. “It is not human.”

“See the ball so early,” Melvin added. “It’s remarkable.”

Lee has an OPS of .969 in general and is more than .500 against the right -handed and left -handed, whom he fought to resolve last season.

He is the only left -handed batter with multiple left -handed successes in launches of at least 99 mph this year, and is the only left -handed with at least three hits of at least 99 mph, regardless of the pitcher’s hand.

There were the two singles against Alvarado, more Another blow A week earlier, when Lee turned a quick 99.7 mph ball on the outer edge of the Hunter Greene Reds. That despite the fact that Lee never saw a single launch of 99 mph last season and was not used to facing that speed child while playing in the kbo.

Lee’s success has helped catalyze the success of the giants, starting an auspicious beginning of the era of Buster Posey and Electrying a base of mute fans ready to support a star. Fitzgerald believes that the presence of Posey and the experience that the rookies of the giants of last year have had an impact on the beginning.

None of those rookies have tasks in a bigger jump that reads.

In Oracle Park, the buzz around the Korean sensation is palpable. There are Alrealy two different groups of fans for Lee: the Jung Hoo Crew, organized by the team, and the Hoo Lee Goose, organized by 51 fans (in honor of their No. 51) in fire and fire wigs.

Lee says he is “very grateful” for support. The 26 -year -old, who still adapts to life in the big leagues, does not seem too rejected for attention, as he did, followed in his father’s footsteps in Korea.

A year of experience helps.

“It’s a difference, now I know what is going to happen tomorrow,” Lee said. “I know what goes the next day [look] As. ”

Lee already has seven more doubles, two more triples, one more homer and twice as races driven in 50 appearances in the Fower dish that last season. Its .333 of batting batting occupies the fifth place in the National League, but it is its increase in power the most amazing.

Among the players with at least 150 appearances on the plate last season, Lee qualified outside the Top 300 in slugging; This year, he occupies the 11th place.

“It’s about the barrel,” Lee said. “What I feel that this season is happening is that many of the releases that I arrived go to the center of the left, center to the right, entering the gap. It’s just heating the barrel.”

After watching a video of last season, Lee felt that the pitchers were often aggressive in the area against him. He tried to respond more aggressively in 2025.

He is swinging more than this year, particularly in the first launch. With his contact skills of Elreaty Elite, Hey willing to balance and get lost sometimes (still has one of the lowest smell rates in MLB) if it means catching some more barrels. It is not balancing harder this year; In fact, its average bat speed It is real slower than in 2024 – But he is finding the optimal point of the bat, pulling the ball in the air more frequently and eliminating the problematic areas in his swing that tormented him in a small sample last season.

A significant reason for its jump in production is its new ability to cover the outer edge of the dish, as those shifts against Alvarado and Greene avoided. Last year, Lee’s attempts to adjust at a higher speed showed some changes in his swing. Upon entering the 2025 season, he tried to recover more than he made him a special batter in Korea.

He already has an open posture, but opened it even more, approached the plate, created more distance between his feet and moved slightly deeper in the box. Only Three qualified batters This year is closer to the dish that reads, and only eight have a more open posture. He wanted to put himself in a better position to handle hunters and cutters who moved away from him.

“When I play at the kbo, it was when I played like this,” Lee said. “I just brought the same mechanism, and I feel it is working.”

Last year, it had an average batting of .222 and a slugging percentage of .267 in launches in the outer third of the plate. These numbers have increased to .346 and .462, respectively, earlier this year.

It went from hitting well below the league average last season to 70% better than the average league until the first part of this year. It is the seventh most valuable player in MLB by FWar and is hitting more than .300 against rapid balls, breaking balls and speed throws.

Even if Heys does not support his sensational slugging numbers, a possibility, given his peatonal elite batting rate, the ability to reach speed and hit all differential launch types, defense of defense and speed defense and speed defense of speed and speed of speed and speed. Speedage and Speedage and Speedage and Speedage and Speedage, Speedage, Speedage and Speedage. Or a distinctive talent.

After years of smell of the Slugers of the stars, the giants could have found a star in a toleter who rarely smelled.

“Look at the numbers right now,” said Melvin, “and they are real.”

Rowan Kavner He is a MLB writer for Fox Sports. He previously covered the Los Angeles, Clippers and Dallas Cowboys dodgers. A LSU graduate, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the west coast in 2014. Following it in X @Rowankavner.

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