San Francisco Giants center fielder Lee Jung-hoo hits a single against the Chicago Cubs at Scottsdale Stadium in Arizona on Feb. 22. [YONHAP]

San Francisco Giants center fielder Lee Jung-hoo hits a single against the Chicago Cubs at Scottsdale Stadium in Arizona on Feb. 22. [YONHAP]

 

With MLB Opening Day just around the corner, the time has come for Lee Jung-hoo to put the frustrations of the past two years behind him.

 

The San Francisco Giants outfielder showed off his batting prowess again on Saturday in the club’s final spring training game at Scottsdale Stadium in Arizona. In a home game against the Cleveland Guardians, he went 2-for-3 with a solo home run in the bottom of the fourth, one RBI and two runs scored, completing his tuneup at the plate.

 


With his first homer of spring training in the bag, Lee finished with a stellar line of .455, one home run, four RBIs and four runs in eight games in his red-hot return from a demanding run at the 2026 World Baseball Classic, offering a glimpse of a breakout season this year.

 

After grounding out to the pitcher in the first inning, Lee singled to right off Tanner Bibee in the third. He did not miss a changeup left over the middle. His bat came around even harder in his next at-bat. Facing Bibee again in the sixth, he launched a towering solo shot.

 

He crushed a 93.3-mile-per-hour fastball over the wall in right-center. The homer stretched San Francisco’s lead to 7-0, and the Giants closed out their final spring training game with a 10-7 win.

 

Lee, who has played for San Francisco since 2024, has yet to post fully satisfying numbers in MLB. He played only 37 games in his rookie season because of a shoulder injury, then batted .266 with eight home runs over 150 games in 2025. Given the expectations surrounding him, those numbers still felt underwhelming.

 

Lee Jung-hoo celebrates after hitting an RBI single during Korea’s Pool C game against Australia at the 2026 World Baseball Classic at the Tokyo Dome in Japan on March 9. [NEWS1]

Lee Jung-hoo celebrates after hitting an RBI single during Korea’s Pool C game against Australia at the 2026 World Baseball Classic at the Tokyo Dome in Japan on March 9. [NEWS1]

 

For now, though, the trend is encouraging. Lee recorded a hit in all but one of his eight spring games. He also had three multihit games. Compared to his spring numbers from the past two years — .343 with a .911 OPS in 2024 and .250 with an .829 OPS last year — this spring has been clearly superior.

 

After wrapping up spring training, San Francisco will play an exhibition against its Triple-A affiliate, the Sacramento River Cats, on Sunday. It will then face the Mexican club Sultanes de Monterrey in a two-game series on Monday and Tuesday. The season opener against the New York Yankees will be held on Wednesday at Oracle Park.

 

Lee is expected to bat leadoff, while Logan Webb will take the mound in the opener. It will be his fifth straight Opening Day start.

 

Meanwhile, Los Angeles Dodgers infielder Kim Hye-seong also built momentum for the new season on Saturday. He went 1-for-4 against the Athletics and finished spring training with a .407 average, one home run, six RBIs and eight runs in nine games. It was an encouraging improvement, up 200 points from the .207 average he posted in spring training during his debut season last year.

 

The Dodgers, who have won back-to-back World Series titles over the past two years, will host the Arizona Diamondbacks in their home opener Thursday. Yoshinobu Yamamoto will start for Los Angeles.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.

BY KO BONG-JUN [[email protected]]