San Francisco Giants Embattled Rookie Seeks Bounce Back Campaign
The San Francisco Giants need their blockbuster signing from the 2024 offseason to have a much better sophomore campaign if they want to avoid a nightmare contract situation.
MLB's Thomas Harrigan recently looked through last year's free agent class to find sluggers in need of a bounce back next year.
Giants rookie Jung Hoo Lee clearly fits that mold after missing most of the season with a shoulder injury. He will get another chance at a healthy campaign in year two.
Lee came over from the KBO with a rich history already under his belt. In six seasons there, he was a five-time Golden Glove winner along with taking home an MVP in 2022.
San Francisco paid a pretty penny to get him to the Bay Area when he finally posted, handing him a six-year, $113 million deal.
The beginning of his MLB career was already off to a rocky start before the injury, with him struggling to find consistency at the plate.
The 26-year-old posted a .262/.310/.331 slash line with two home runs over 37 games. In some good news, he was still showing some solid plate discipline, so he could still just be adjusting to American pitching.
It would be a quick judgment to decide anything about him in his first season in the MLB too harshly, but another bad year and the doubts will set in.
Him missing so much time to injury wasn't all bad, though, as it did pave the path for Heliot Ramos to have a breakout campaign.
Ramos made his first career All-Star team with a .269/.322/.469 slash line with 22 home runs last year. He held center field down for a majority of the rest of the season.
Center field was still an overall weak point, though, with Ramos' contributions not enough to save it as a whole.
On the year, that spot in the lineup produced a total slash line of .247/.286/.395. San Francisco will need that to be much better.
The Giants outfield as a whole was fairly disappointing, ranking bottom-10 in the league in WAR.
Heading into this year, the group will likely consist of Lee, Ramos and Mike Yastrzemski. If the youngsters continue to progress and Yastrzemski remains at least average, it should be a better group overall.
It is also good that having so much money tied to Lee didn't keep them from opening up the pocketbooks to hand out some more big contracts this past offseason to help get even better.