San Francisco Giants outfielder Jung Hoo Lee runs to first during the sixth inning of a game against the San Diego Padres Monday, March 30, 2026, in San Diego.
Gregory Bull/AP
Giants outfielder Jung Hoo Lee, right, is congratulated by Luis Arraez after scoring against the New York Yankees during a game in San Francisco, Saturday, March 28, 2026.
Jeff Chiu/AP
BALTIMORE — Jung Hoo Lee is not yet the player the San Francisco Giants anticipated he’d be when signing him out of the KBO.
He’d be the first to say it. More than anything, Lee would love to demonstrate why the Giants gave him a six-year, $113 million deal, and he’d like to do it on a consistent basis. When Lee is going well, he’s a dynamic, fun player to watch and the team could use that and so could the fans.
“I want to for sure show the fans my best on the field, and do that not just for the fans, but for the city of San Francisco itself, and the people in the organization,” Lee said through team interpreter Justin Han. “I want to give back to them. I know that a lot of people saw me play in the KBO and they saw me at my peak.
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“I really want to bring that version of myself to the major leagues. I just want to tell everybody that I’m trying my best.”
In 884 games in the KBO, Lee hit .340 with some power (averaging more than 50 extra-base hits per season), some speed and more walks than strikeouts. He was the league’s MVP in 2022, a perennial All-Star and Gold Glove winner, and he’s now 27 — which is considered the professional prime for baseball players. He’s batting .185 with a .561 OPS through the first 16 games.
General manager Zack Minasian probably saw Lee the most among the Giants’ top executives when Lee was playing in Korea. He harbors no major concerns about the outfielder.
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“He really is a superstar in Korea, and as far as being that guy here, there is a ton of ability there,” Minasian said. “Can he be that guy? I think he’s shown it in some streaks. The hardest part is to sustain it, and he’s done an incredibly great job of handling himself. It’s got to be a difficult transition when things aren’t going the way you want them to and you’re in an entirely different country and culture.
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“Jung Hoo has stayed upbeat and positive, but we don’t want to think, from that, it’s just easy. It’s not. And he’s at the top of the list of guys who really want to do well.”
Lee has had some obvious obstacles to getting his big-league career on a roll, including the severe shoulder injury that wiped out most of his first season, in 2024. Last year was really the adjustment season, getting to know major-league pitchers, and now, in his second real season, he knows the pitchers but they also know him and he’s got to adjust yet again.
That’s just the nature of big-league baseball, but Lee will not use it as an excuse.
“There’s no way that I’m going to put this on the pitching, it’s more about myself right now,” he said. “During spring training, I wasn’t really looking at the results or trying to think about the results. When the season starts, you’re trying to get the results because you’re trying to make the team win, and I think it’s about my swing.
“During the spring, I was more disciplined, but I think when the season started, I started rushing a little bit. We’re working on staying back a little bit better.”
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Hitting coach Hunter Mense is pleased with Lee’s work and believes he’s showing some good signs.
“Once he gets those consistent at-bats, you’ll start to see the guy who is as good as what he was over there,” Mense said. “He’s been really good for a really long time, and when he’s really going well, you’ll see this level of quickness that he has in his swing that’s a lot like Luis Arraez’s.
“The way Jung Hoo moves is really efficient and unique, and he’s so efficient getting the barrel to the ball, there’s no extra slack. He can make contact just super quick.”
This season, Lee has also dealt with a position shift. This is a positive development: Lee has played right field plenty, and he’s been terrific there so far. Oracle Park presents some tricky angles in right, and he’ll be tested, but so is everyone who has to handle strange kicks off the bricks.
The outfield defense as a whole is much improved, despite a glitch or two here or there; the group has a plus-3 in defensive runs saved (it was plus-5 before a dropoff during the weekend losses to the Orioles, some of that with Jerar Encarncion in right and Lee in center). Manager Tony Vitello has raved about the work Heliot Ramos has put in over in left and Lee in adjusting to right, plus the job Harrison Bader has done in center.
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And singling Lee out for some offensive underperformance, especially early in the season, would be unfair and doesn’t provide the full picture. With the exception of a handful of players, few Giants are hitting well, and the entire outfield in particular has come up short, batting a combined .178, second worst in the majors behind the Reds’ .171, with the worst OBP (.216) and second-worst slugging (.253).
All three primary outfielders played in the World Baseball Classic, which could be a factor, and Bader missed some time with a hamstring issue when he returned. Lee discounted the WBC as a factor, but Mense, in his first year with the club, said the tournament did mean that Lee spent less time with the hitters.
“It sort of elongated the process of getting to know them more, getting to know what they need, what they’re looking for,” he said. “But you can make up for that pretty quickly.”
Lee had four hits in the first two games in Baltimore before facing a lefty, Cade Povich, on Sunday. Lee is feeling better about his at-bats and his swing, and Mense believes that’s the case for many of the Giants hitters, who are batting a combined .243 with an MLB-low eight homers.
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“I would say this about everybody that’s struggled, they’re all just on the verge of going,” he said. “They’re all really good big-league hitters and it’s just a matter of time. They all want it sooner rather than later, and sometimes it takes a little bit longer. It will come.”