"Lee met Dr. Neal Elatrache in Los Angeles and was recommended for shoulder surgery," the San Francisco Giants said on Wednesday (Korea time). "Lee will undergo joint and sequential suture surgery on his left shoulder within a few weeks. He will not be on the field until 2024."

"Lee will undergo rehabilitation for six months. It is difficult to play this season, but the medical staff said they could recover completely," said Farhan Zaidi, president of the baseball division. He hoped that Lee would come back in 2025 without suffering aftereffects of injury.
Lee Jung-hoo jumped to catch Jaymer Candelario's ball in the top of the first inning of a home game against the Cincinnati Reds at Oracle Park in San Francisco, California, on the 13th of this month, and hit the fence hard.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed structural damage to Lee's left shoulder, and Lee moved to Los Angeles on Wednesday to meet with Dr. Elatrace. Dr. Elatrace is a world-renowned surgery doctor in sports. To Korean baseball fans, he is well-known as the mastermind behind Ryu Hyun-jin (currently Hanwha Eagles) shoulder and elbow surgery.

Many sports stars in the MLB and around the world entrust Dr. Elatrice to undergo surgery. Last year, MLB superstar Shohei Ohtani (Los Angeles Dodgers) received elbow surgery from Dr. Elatrice.

It is the second time that Lee is undergoing shoulder surgery. Lee was diagnosed with a ruptured hip joint after injuring his left shoulder while sliding at a match against the Doosan Bears in Jamsil on June 19, 2018, when he played for the Nexen Heroes (currently Kiwoom) in the KBO League.먹튀검증

Although Lee returned to the ground in a month by pulling the rehabilitation clock, he injured his left shoulder again when he threw himself to catch the ball while on defense in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 2 of the semi-playoff against the Hanwha Eagles in Daejeon on Oct. 20 of that year. In the end, Lee had surgery in November 2018 to suture the anterior and inferior joints of his left shoulder. Lee still accelerated his rehabilitation after the surgery, completing his rehabilitation in four months, faster than expected before the surgery, and playing the opening game of the 2019 regular season normally.

Lee Jung-hoo, who posted a career batting average of 0.340 while playing in the KBO league until 2023, entered the big league with a six-year, $113 million contract with San Francisco ahead of this season. He posted a batting average of 0.262 (38 hits in 145 at-bats), two homers, eight RBIs, two steals, and an OPS of 0.641 in 37 MLB games this year. He showed off his pioneering performance that San Francisco expected by recording the top 1% swing and strikeout ratio (9.6 percent) and strikeout ratio (8.2 percent). His batting speed was 89.1 miles per hour (143.3 kilometers), slightly higher than the MLB average of 88.5 miles (142.4 kilometers).

However, he failed to avoid the injury trap. The scene where he complains of pain due to shoulder pain is more likely to become Lee's last memory of the first season of the MLB.

Lee Jung-hoo, who will soon schedule a surgery and start rehabilitation, said in an interview with local reporters including The Athletic, "The past month and a half of playing in MLB is the most unforgettable time in my baseball life."