San Francisco Giants' Jung-Hoo Lee, 26, is raising expectations with his stellar performance in his major league debut.

On March 26, MLB.com, the official site of Major League Baseball, reported, "The most difficult mystery to solve in March is predicting regular-season performance from spring training exhibition games. But we'll give it our best shot anyway. With Opening Day just a few days away, we took a look at which players' exhibition performances could translate into regular-season success," and selected 15 players who performed well in exhibition games. Lee Jung-hoo made the list.

Lee started at first base in the 2024 Major League Baseball spring training exhibition game at the Oakland Coliseum in Oakland, California, USA, on April 26 and went 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout. His hitting streak came to an unfortunate halt after three games, but he is still hitting over .300 in exhibition play.

After joining Nexen (now Kiwoom) as the first overall pick in the 2017 Rookie Draft, Lee won the Rookie of the Year award after batting .252 (179-for-552) with two home runs, 47 RBIs, 111 runs scored, 12 doubles, and an .812 OPS in 144 games in his rookie year. Since then, he has continued to improve and become one of Korea's leading hitters.

In 2022, Lee batted .349 (193-for-553) with 23 home runs, 113 RBIs and a .996 OPS in 142 games, winning five batting titles (batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, on-base percentage and RBIs) and the league MVP award, before suffering an ankle injury that ended his season early last year, but he followed it up with a solid 86-game season in which he batted .301 (105-for-330) with six home runs, 45 RBIs and an .861 OPS.

After batting .344 (3476-for-1181) with 65 home runs, 515 RBIs, and an OPS of .898 in 884 KBO games, Lee signed a six-year, $113 million contract with San Francisco to play in the majors. It is the largest contract ever for a KBO player to reach the major leagues.

Lee is a rookie hitter who has yet to play a single game in the major leagues. 스포츠토토 However, the Giants didn't hesitate to give him a massive contract worth more than $100 million. It's the fifth-largest contract in franchise history, behind Buster Posey (nine years, $167 million), Johnny Cueto (six years, $130 million), Matt Cain (six years, $127.5 million), and Barry Zito (seven years, $126 million). The Giants have high hopes for Lee. Manager Bob Melvin plans to use Lee as the leadoff center fielder this season.

In 12 games, Lee is batting .990 with one home run, five doubles, six RBIs, six runs scored, two stolen bases, and a .990 OPS in 32 at-bats. As MLB.com notes, "Lee is a hitter who has shown top-notch contact ability in South Korea. But it's nice to see what he can do against big league-level pitching in an exhibition game before he makes his debut with the Giants," said MLB.com, noting Lee's performance in the exhibition game.

"MLB.com, which praised Lee's performance in the exhibition game, said, "His high batting average and low strikeout rate in spring training are a promising sign of what he'll look like in the regular season. His smooth, line-drive-hitting swing was on full display against Arizona on April 1. He led off with a 99.7 mph (160.1 km/h) double and followed it up with a 109.7 mph (176.5 km/h) home run."

Joining Lee on the list are Gunner Henderson (Baltimore), Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (Toronto), Wyatt Langford (Texas), O'Neill Crews (Pittsburgh), Luis Arajes (Miami), Dalton Bashaw (Toronto), Jackson Holliday (Baltimore), and Spencer Strider (Atlanta), Tarik Skubal (Detroit), Edwin Díaz (Mets), Imanaga Shota (Cubs), Hunter Braun (Houston), Mason Miller (Oakland), and Garrett Crotchett (White Sox), all of whom have shown promise in exhibition play, raising expectations for the regular season.