DETROIT — When Hao-Yu Lee steps to the plate, the unmistakable sound of Soulja Boy reverberates over the Comerica Park speakers.

Ahhhh …. Yuuuuu

Lee was down in the Tigers’ batting cage one day when the “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” came on. Teammates, including Spencer Torkelson, took note of the song and how it fit Lee’s name.

“If you can make that your walk-up song,” someone said, “that’d be sick.”

“OK,” Lee said, “I’ll do it.”

A few months later, Lee not only has one of the most banging walk-up songs on the Tigers. He’s also a player who overflows with energy and enthusiasm. He has the word “Persistence” tattooed down the left side of his neck. He has helped bring a defiant fire to a team that sorely needed it earlier in the summer.

Saturday against the Rockies, Lee battled through a 12-pitch at-bat before shooting a dart into the right-field corner. He slid into third base, helmet flying off, and emerged in a cloud of dirt, pumping his fists and roaring at the fired-up crowd.

“They showed me love,” Lee said of the fans, “and I felt the love.”

Lee’s vibe is part of what makes him so intriguing. Throughout his rise through the minors, there were legendary stories about his trash-talk and competitiveness.

“He doesn’t suffer from a lack of edge,” manager A.J. Hinch said.

Lee, who is from Taiwan, does interviews with the help of interpreter Peter Lin. But behind the scenes, he’s plenty comfortable with English, unafraid to razz his teammates over lackluster performances in video games or anything else that might arise.

“He doesn’t need translation behind the scenes with the boys when he’s comfortable,” Hinch said. “I really enjoy his personality on this team.”

On the field, Lee remains a fascinating case. Acquired from the Phillies in the 2023 Michael Lorenzen trade, the Tigers were long higher on Lee than many in the scouting community. Watching Lee through his first 102 MLB games, the debate remains. He hit only .205 through his first 32 contests and was sent down. He reemerged 10 days later and proceeded to hit .326 over a 53-game span in the big leagues.

Lee has admitted he was trying to do too much when he was promoted for the first time. Harnessing his energy and resisting this urge to do too much has helped him settle in.

“Ever since my second time getting called up, I’ve just focused on the day to day,” Lee said. “Every player has their ups and downs.”

Lee still has plenty of rough edges in his game. At second and third base, his range (minus-12 outs above average) ranks in the league’s bottom first percentile. His arm does not grade out especially well. He’s prone to overaggressiveness on the bases and has made a few questionable decisions, like cutting off an outfield throw that could have resulted in a close play at the plate.

He still has some glaring mechanical imperfections, namely a stride that tends to leak toward the third-base side, opening up his hips, sometimes pulling him away from the ball and exposing him on the outer third of the plate. He steps in the bucket, as it’s commonly called in Little League parlance.

IT’S A FIESTA IN DOWNTOWN DETROIT!! pic.twitter.com/t8xfEyb39v

— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) September 12, 2026

Talking to Lee, though, he said some of that is simply the natural way his body moves.

“I’ve been trying to figure that part out,” Lee said. “Why my hip opens up earlier. It turns out my answer was every hitter is different, and I’m just that type of player. My hips open up early.”

Natural as that movement might be, it can still present problems at the plate. He has a 39 percent whiff rate on pitches in the up-and-away quadrant of the strike zone. Pitchers are increasingly attacking him to exploit this hole. After his scorching 53-game stretch, Lee is only 10-for-57 with 22 strikeouts since Aug. 24, though he went 3-for-5 with three RBIs on Saturday.

“Even with that being natural, you can do it too much,” Hinch said of Lee’s stride. “When you get going a little too fast or get going too far, you can get exposed. I think that happened to him in a couple series, teams that were really good at dotting the ball away, getting the ball cutting away from him, the guys that could land the slider a little bit early in the count and get him to expand late, that’s where you saw the performance start to slip a little bit.”

Toning down the in-the-bucket-stride was part of what helped Lee succeed in his second stint in the big leagues. He has made his share of weak contact but has achieved a max exit velocity of 112.2 mph.

Hinch seems accepting of the fact that Lee might never have perfect aesthetics in the box. He pointed to players such as Marcus Giles and Dan Uggla who had success and hit for power despite an open front-side hitting style.

“There are a ton of examples of guys,” Hinch said. “It depends on how and when you do it, if you do it too much.”

Here in September, Lee is a central character on a Tigers team that is playing the kids. He is in the lineup almost every day, with playing time diminished for veterans such as Gleyber Torres and Javier Báez. Like other rookies such as Ben Malgeri and Brett Callahan, Lee brings an intriguing skill set but still has plenty of room for improvement.

Lee should enter the offseason with a high likelihood of starting next year in the major leagues. A fifth infielder role might be the baseline. The Tigers still seem to hope he could become even more. He is only 23 years old, still learning and growing at this level.

Whatever his future holds, he’s a fascinating player to watch in so many ways.

“His edge, his competitiveness, is real,” Hinch said. “It’s not an act. It just sort of comes out in these big moments. He loves baseball.”