$113 million contract with the San Francisco Giants

Lee Jung-hoo can play four years and execute opt-outs."

It is truly a "super-jackpot." The $113 million is equivalent to about 148.4 billion won in Korean won.

Local media easily exceeded their expectations. Leading U.S. sports media had forecast Lee Jung-hoo's contract duration and ransom, but ESPN forecasted 63 million dollars for five years, The Athletic forecast 56 million dollars for four years, and MLB Trade Rumors forecast 50 million dollars for five years, while CBS Sports forecast 90 million dollars for five years, which was the highest, but it did not exceed 100 million dollars.

Above all, it is suggestive that it far exceeded the contract size of Masataka Yoshida (30, Boston Red Sox), a Japanese left-handed hitter who was considered Lee Jung-hoo's ransom barometer. Yoshida signed a five-year, $90 million contract with Boston ahead of this season. Yoshida, who participated as a member of the Japanese national team at the World Baseball Classic (WBC) in March, took over as the No. 4 hitter when Murakami Munetaka, a man with 56 home runs, was sluggish, and led Japan to the championship by setting a new record for the most RBIs in a single WBC tournament.

Making his first Major League debut this year, Yoshida played in 140 games, posting a batting average of .289, a on-base percentage of .338, a slugging percentage of .445, and an OPS of .783 with 15 home runs, 72 RBIs and eight steals. Given that he was in his first season since debut, the performance was not bad.

Lee Jung-hoo, who is compared to a left-handed hitter like Yoshida and a similar type of player, has a great advantage that he is five years younger than Yoshida. Even so, no one expected Lee Jung-hoo to sign a contract that exceeded 100 million dollars. In short, it was a "super jackpot."

As such, it is possible to read San Francisco's willingness to recruit. San Francisco's general manager Pete Putilla showed great interest in Kiwoom's final home game at Gocheok Sky Dome on October 10 to see Lee Jung-hoo enter the batter's box.

San Francisco made a gesture to aggressively move in the FA market this winter. In fact, there were also moves to recruit Shohei Ohtani, a "divergence superstar." Although Ohtani was lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers, he expressed his commitment to inject so much money that he could stage a fierce competition with the Toronto Blue Jays, forming a three-way race.

After losing the bid to recruit Ohtani, San Francisco started recruiting center fielder Lee Jung-hoo, which was considered one of the top positions in reinforcement, and ended up picking Lee Jung-hoo. Cody Bellinger is considered the biggest center fielder in the FA market this year, but San Francisco had a different opinion. While playing for the Chicago Cubs this year, Bellinger made a comeback with a batting average of .307, 26 homers and 97 RBIs, but up until a year ago, he was suffering from ups and downs. Given that he is considered the biggest midfielder in the center field, the prevailing expectation is that he will secure a contract worth 100 million U.S. dollars or more. Therefore, it is certain that he will be paid more than Lee. San Francisco's choice was Lee Jung-hoo. 메이저사이트

As expected, Lee Jung-hoo was Lee Jung-hoo. He not only set a new contract record for the highest amount of posting money by a KBO league player in history, but also set a new record for the highest amount of posting money by an Asian batter. Lee, who had a batting average of .349 with 23 home runs and 113 RBIs last year and became the batting champion for two consecutive years and the first MVP of a regular season, was content to leave a batting average of .318 with six home runs and 45 RBIs in the aftermath of this year's ankle injury, but Major League teams were already looking into Lee's value.