This is a huge contract that exceeds expectations. Korean baseball icon Lee Jeong-hoo (25) became the first KBO League player to exceed $100 million in contract size. In terms of the size of Korean big leaguer contracts of all time, it is second only to the 7-year, $130 million contract signed by Choo Shin-soo with Texas in the winter of 2013.

The New York Post's John Heyman announced on the 13th (Korean time) that Lee Jung-hoo signed a six-year contract worth $113 million (148.369 billion won) with San Francisco. Originally, a three-way match was held between San Francisco, San Diego, and the New York Mets over Lee Jeong-hoo, and the winner was San Francisco.

It was somewhat expected. San Francisco's general manager Pete Putilla personally visited Gocheok Dome and looked at Lee Jung-hoo. Usually, the scout team or scout team leader of a major league club visits, but in San Francisco, the general manager personally came to Korea. Even when Lee Jeong-hoo took his last at-bat, saying goodbye to Kiwoom fans for the time being, general manager Putilla gave him a standing ovation.<a href="https://www.gwolf.info/" target="_blank" title="토토사이트">토토사이트</a>

With this, Lee Jung-hoo surpassed the four-year, $80 million contract signed with Ryu Hyun-jin and Toronto in the winter of 2019. Even though he has not yet had a single at-bat in the big leagues, he signed a larger contract than Ryu Hyun-jin, who was competing for the Cy Young Award. There is an opt-out clause after four years, so if he plays well in the big leagues in the future, a larger contract is possible after the 2027 season.

As Lee Jung-hoo signed a big deal, Kiwoom also hit the jackpot. According to the posting calculation method, when Lee Jung-hoo completes the six-year contract period, Kiwoom receives approximately 24.7 billion won from the San Francisco team.

The posting calculation method is proportional to the contract size. If the contract size is over $50 million, it is 20% of the first $25 million ($5 million) + 17.5% of the next $25 million ($4.375 million) + 15% of the amount over $50 million. Substituting $113 million here, Lee Jeong-hoo's posting fee is $18.825 million ($5 million + $4.375 million + $9.45 million: approximately KRW 24.7 billion). Kiwoom earned one year of club operating expenses through Lee Jeong-hoo.

San Francisco seemed like a likely destination, but I had no idea the size of the contract would be this large. Local media also viewed Lee Jung-hoo's value as increasingly higher, with 4 years and $56 million in early November when the free agent market opened, and 6 years and $90 million on the 12th, but did not predict that he would exceed $100 million.

Big league scouts analyzed Lee Jeong-hoo as having sophisticated contact skills that would work on the best stage, above-average base running ability, and above-average defense as a center fielder. He was considered the biggest outfielder along with Cody Bellinger in the free agent market, and completed a $100 million contract before Bellinger.

His overall performance in the KBO League is 7 seasons, 884 games, batting average of 0.340, 65 home runs, 69 stolen bases, 515 RBIs, 581 runs, and OPS of 0.898. After joining in 2017, his records steadily improved until 2022, and in 2022, he won the MVP award with a batting average of 0.349, 23 home runs, 5 stolen bases, 113 RBI, 85 runs, and an OPS of 0.996 in 142 games.

He conquered the Korean stage early on and has already achieved the American dream. Jeong-hoo Lee will prepare for his big league debut season in Arizona, USA, where the San Francisco Spring Training will be held in February next year.