“I can be one of the most popular players.”

Lee Jung-hoo had his best year this season. Lee Jung-hoo played in 142 games and recorded 193 hits, 23 home runs, 113 RBIs, 85 runs, a batting average of 0.349 OPS and 0.996, and took first place in batting average, hits, RBIs, slugging percentage, and on-base percentage. And Kiwoom Heroes contributed greatly to winning the title of runner-up.

Lee Jung-hoo, who first stepped on the first team stage in 2017, has become an annual year to aim for overseas advancement. After the 2023 season ends, Lee Jung-hoo can challenge the major leagues through the posting system, and depending on his performance in international competitions, he can also try to qualify as a free agent.

On the 1st, at the ‘Joa Pharmaceutical Professional Baseball Awards’ ceremony, Lee Jung-hoo said, “After the 2023 season, you will be eligible to advance overseas. However, since I have not talked to the club, I will speak slowly.” . However, as time passed, Lee Jung-hoo also began to reveal his intentions about his advancement to the major leagues.

In particular, at the Golden Glove Awards ceremony, he said, “I’m excited about the fact that the things I vaguely imagined can come right in front of my eyes next year. But in order to do that, I have to go through the season well.” “, he expressed his desire.

Kim Ha-seong (San Diego Padres), 메이저사이트 who had been working together with Lee Jung-hoo for a long time, seems to be confident in Lee Jung-hoo’s success. Recently, Kim Ha-sung emphasized, “When I was playing in the United States, many team officials asked about (Lee) Jung-hoo.”

Local reviews are also good. On the 15th (Korean time), in the process of evaluating the league with players from Japanese professional baseball, the rankings of Asian prospects were revealed. And Lee Jung-hoo ranked 5th, following Munetaka Murakami (1st place), Yoshinobu Yamamoto (2nd place), Kodai Senga (3rd place), and Loki Sasaki (4th place).

If you look at the scouting report of the American baseball statistics site ‘Fangraph’, “Lee Jeong-hoo has gotten more walks than strikeouts over the past three years. In 2022, he had an MVP season with 23 homers and 60 extra-base hits.” He takes the sweetest-looking swing on the planet and is good at attacking fastballs.”

Continuing, the media said, “If you look at Lee Jung-hoo’s ground ball rate (60%) and .226/.273/.419 on fast balls over 93 miles (about 150 km), it may not work in the major leagues. “Lee Jung-hoo could become one of the most popular players in the offseason next year,” he said.

‘Fangraph’ evaluated Lee Jung-hoo’s potential (FV, Future Value) at 50 points. This is the same score as Senga, who recently signed a large contract for 5 years and 75 million dollars (about 98.3 billion won) with the New York Mets, and Sasaki, who achieved the youngest ‘perfect game’ in Japanese professional baseball this year. The point of entry into the major leagues was predicted to be in the 2024 season, and the risk was ‘medium’.

After the 2023 season is over, it is very likely that Lee Jung-hoo will challenge the major league stage. In the ‘potential’ category, Lee Jung-hoo, who received a better evaluation than Yoshida Masataka (47 points), who signed a 5-year, 90 million dollar (approximately 118 billion won) jackpot contract with the Boston Red Sox, signed a larger contract when he stepped on the big league stage. I look forward to seeing him in my arms.