Shohei Ohtani and the San Diego Padres are scheduled to open the upcoming major-league season March 20-21 at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, South Korea. For Ohtani, the international stage will highlight the crossover superstardom of the player who agreed to the largest contract in sports history. For his opponent, the two-game series could serve as another reminder of the financial advantages enjoyed by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
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Team officials confirmed over the weekend that, unlike six years ago, the Padres never met with Ohtani at any point during his high-stakes free agency. The front office knew it was not going to be bidding $500 million — much less $700 million — after the letdown of an 82-80 season, the collapse of San Diego’s regional sports network and the passing of owner Peter Seidler.
Even if none of those things had occurred, perhaps the outcome would be the same. No team can match the Dodgers’ combination of geography and resources. Padres executives were not surprised that Ohtani opted to move up the freeway from Anaheim. Saturday, which brought Ohtani’s announcement of his decision, still capped a gut-wrenching week for fans already lamenting the departure of star left fielder Juan Soto. In the meantime, many of the club’s supporters continued to hope for a potential consolation player.
A source familiar with the Padres’ plans said Sunday no deal is imminent between San Diego and free-agent center fielder Jung Hoo Lee, who is known for his bat-to-ball skills and who spent the past seven seasons playing his home games at Gocheok Sky Dome. The Padres have longtime interest, two outfield vacancies and multiple possible advantages.
“He could be special. They will have a really good player on their hands.”@Anthony_Recker discusses Jung Hoo Lee’s potential on #MLBTonight. pic.twitter.com/hVVdebBpOO
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) December 9, 2023
Most notably, Padres infielder Ha-Seong Kim is Lee’s best friend, a former Kiwoom Heroes teammate and a Gold Glove Award winner who could directly ease Lee’s transition to the U.S. Korean baseball icon Chan Ho Park is an advisor in the Padres’ baseball operations department, as well as the lifelong best friend of Heroes manager Won-ki Hong. Three years ago, Park helped persuade Kim to sign a four-year, $28 million contract with the Padres, who edged out the Toronto Blue Jays for the infielder’s services. And Lee already is familiar with the Padres’ spring training complex; the Heroes have held portions of their spring training in Peoria, Ariz.
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However, league sources say an agreement with Lee is not a foregone conclusion. In trading Soto and center fielder Trent Grisham to the New York Yankees, the Padres acquired much-needed pitching depth while shoring up their catching position and lowering their projected payroll, according to FanGraphs, to $156 million — about $40 million below what is believed to be the club’s target for March 20. But with Grisham’s exit, they could use not one but two outfielders. They are still seeking at least one more starting pitcher and multiple relievers.
Signing Lee could eat up a large chunk of their funds. The Athletic’s Tim Britton projected, at the start of the offseason, a four-year, $56 million contract that would trigger an additional posting fee of $10.275 million. Now, with Ohtani heading to the Dodgers, the San Francisco Giants are among the suitors that may have piqued interest in Lee — and perhaps more money to spend than the Padres. Some industry observers would not be surprised if Lee’s agent, Scott Boras, lands a deal closer to the five-year, $90 million contract he brokered last offseason between Japanese outfielder Masataka Yoshida and the Boston Red Sox. That signing required a posting fee of $15.375 million.
“Jung Hoo, we’ve had probably close to half the league already contact us about him,” Boras said at the general managers’ meetings last month. “For those of you who don’t know, we brought Yoshida over here (to the majors last season). We knew his bat-to-ball skills would play at a high level here, which they have. But Jung Hoo has center-field premiums. He can play defense and he has power. I think Jung Hoo is going to bring K-pop to MLB.”
There are reasons to think Lee will not command a deal as lucrative as Yoshida’s. Lee, 25, is five years younger, a faster runner and a stronger defender, one the Padres believe could be average or better as a big-league center fielder. But some evaluators still view the Korea Baseball Organization as roughly on par with the Double-A level, and Kim is one of only three Korean-born hitters to have recorded a three-WAR season in the majors. Lee, the 2022 KBO MVP, is coming off an injury-shortened season in which he underwent ankle surgery and hit only six home runs.
Part of an early-season slump was attributed to what Lee described as the first swing change of his career. With help from Kim, and in anticipation of eventually facing big-league velocity, Lee began making those adjustments last offseason. Kim has continued advising Lee in multiple aspects, including contract specifics. When Kim signed his Padres deal, he received a clause that would allow him to reject any minor-league assignments beginning in 2023.
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“When I negotiated my deal, I really wanted that clause, but looking back on it, it ultimately didn’t mean anything,” Kim said in a press conference last month in Seoul. “I was terrible in my first year and didn’t get sent down. If you make a certain amount of money, it’s hard for teams to send you down. Jung Hoo is going to make a decent amount. He’d be better off getting an opt-out clause in his deal instead.”
A frontloaded deal with an opt-out could mean a lower average annual value and, thus, less of a hit to the Padres’ luxury-tax figure — currently about $28 million below the 2024 tax threshold, according to FanGraphs. On the other hand, such an arrangement could leave San Diego with less flexibility to acquire multiple pitchers and another bat. The Padres are at least listening to trade inquiries involving infielder Jake Cronenworth, who will make $7 million next season in the first year of a seven-year, $80 million extension.
Lee, who was posted Dec. 4 by Major League Baseball, has until Jan. 3 to reach an agreement with a team. If the Padres do not sign him, they may have to get creative on the trade market. The only left-handed hitters on San Diego’s 40-man roster are Cronenworth, Matt Carpenter, Brett Sullivan and Tucupita Marcano. Prospects Jakob Marsee, Jackson Merrill and Graham Pauley bat from the left side, but they lack upper-level experience or, in the cases of Merrill and Pauley, outfield experience. Meanwhile, the free-agent market for lefty-hitting outfielders is thin. The Padres are unlikely to make a serious play for Cody Bellinger, a Boras client who is expected to receive a nine-figure deal.
So, among available position players, Lee might be the Padres’ best fit. The near future will tell whether they are willing to meet his asking price, but team officials also have weighed potential ancillary benefits. Lee, the son of two-time KBO MVP Jong Beom Lee, has been a celebrity in South Korea since he became the first player to go straight from high school to appearing in every game as a KBO rookie. Kim’s rise to prominence has been more gradual, KBO analyst Daniel Kim said in a September interview.
Pairing the two friends on the same big-league club would not have nearly as much international resonance as signing Ohtani, but it is at least something to consider as the Padres try to distance themselves from a forgettable season.
“If Jung Hoo ends up in San Diego,” Daniel Kim said, “the San Diego Padres are pretty much the Korean national team.”
(Top photo of Jung Hoo Lee during the World Baseball Classic in March: Yuki Taguchi / WBCI / MLB Photos via Getty Images)
