Where Lee and the Giants Go from Here After the End of Their Rookie Season originally appeared in NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO – Within the Giants clubhouse, Jung Hoo Lee has become known for many things in his short time with the organization. He already has some of the best bat-to-ball skills in the Majors, an ability to adjust quickly when given instructions from the coaching staff and a fearlessness in center that has been alternately exciting and frightening.
But most of all, Lee’s teammates and coaches know him for always having a smile on his face. He talks often about how much he loves the game and it’s not hard to see that.
On Friday, Lee took a more serious tone. Just minutes after the Giants announced he would undergo season-ending shoulder surgerythe biggest addition of the offseason was in the clubhouse and said the first month and a half in the big leagues was “the happiest month of my baseball career.”
“This is not how I thought I would end my rookie season,” he said through interpreter Justin Han. “For the entire baseball career I’ve had, this might be one of the most disappointing seasons I’ve had. For now, I’m just trying to think about it optimistically and trying to think not about the past, but about the future.”
In Lee’s immediate future will be a second shoulder surgery. He underwent a similar procedure on the same shoulder in 2018 and said when he hit the wall at Oracle Park last weekend, he knew he had suffered yet another dislocation. Lee flew to Los Angeles on Thursday to see Dr. Neal ElAttrache, widely considered the best shoulder surgeon in the country. The second opinion supported the first, and over the next two to three weeks, Lee will undergo surgery to repair a torn labrum.
The rehabilitation process will take about six months, meaning the most expensive free agent in franchise history won’t see the field again until 2025 and will end his rookie season having played just 37 games.
The good news, said president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, is that all of the doctors who have examined Lee are confident he will make a full recovery and be 100 percent for the start of spring training. But there’s no denying this is a punch in the gut for Lee, the clubhouse and the front office that built the offseason around the new center fielder and leadoff hitter.
“It’s a real bummer,” Zaidi said. “It seemed like he really hit the ground running this season. We saw a lot of good things and it looked like he would continue to improve. In addition to the excitement he created, it seemed like he was becoming more and more important to our team’s success, both offensively and defensively, with what he did in the center of the field.
“It’s really disappointing. Again, we’re hoping for a full recovery and we know he’s going to work hard and come back strong in 2025. As we’ve already seen, this has created some opportunities for some of our other young players. That’s the good thing is that this It will create an opportunity, and we have a lot of motivated young players who are looking to establish themselves.
“We are very disappointed for Jung Hoo, obviously, and for ourselves and our fans. Everyone’s been excited about what he’s done so far, but he’ll be back and he’ll be back strong and hopefully we can keep going. building on some of the momentum that some of our young players have created for us.”
Luis Matos will have the first chance to replace Lee, and it should be a lengthy test, given the 22-year-old’s importance to the future of the franchise. Heliot Ramos will also have good vision, and while the Giants don’t view him as a center fielder, there are plenty of ways to keep him around and in an important spot in the lineup once the other injured outfielders get healthy.
When starting a second series without Lee, manager Bob Melvin moved Jorge Soler to the top of the lineup. He noted that Soler has already had success as a leadoff hitter, even if he doesn’t have a traditional profile, and is fully on board with the plan.
With Soler back from IL, and Matos and Ramos look promising, the Giants have the bodies to try to get back on track, but Melvin admitted it would take some time for Lee’s diagnosis to sink in. He met with Lee and talked about things he could do once the surgery is complete, and there are certainly many ways Lee can use this time to continue to adjust to MLB and life in the United States.
Asked about the rest of this season, Lee said it was too early to determine where he would rehab or what that process would look like. Perhaps, after some time away, Lee will return with a different style, one that will stop him from flirting so often with danger on the warning track.
Lee said he always tried to give 100 percent and never thought an injury like this would happen. He watched others, including close friend Ha-Seong Kim, give their all in MLB, and for six weeks, he was able to live that dream. Now, everything is on hold until 2025, a depressing thought for an organization that had hoped this year would allow Lee to become a cornerstone.
“He loves playing baseball and he loves playing for the Giants,” Melvin said. “This was a significant sign for us, so it is disappointing for everyone, and especially for him. We’ll find a way to do our thing without him, but he’s been a really big guy for us this year and he knows that. you can do it. You play a certain way and sometimes these things will happen, but yes, it will take a while to understand.
