Giants' Jung Hoo Lee heads for season-ending shoulder surgery: "I just want to come back with a strong mind"

Source: The New York Times
Author: Andrew Baggarly

SAN FRANCISCO -- Jung Hoo Lee is just 25 years old. He's barely two months into his six-year contract with the San Francisco Giants. His entire major-league career is in front of him. When he dislocated his left shoulder in a collision with the outfield fence last week, he knew what happened before he hit the dirt warning track. He also suspected strongly that season-ending surgery would be in his future.

Lee will undergo that surgery to repair his labrum as soon as Dr. Neal ElAttrache has an opening on his schedule in the next couple of weeks, the Giants announced on Friday. The rehab process is expected to take six months and all expectations are that Lee, who had a similar procedure in Korea in 2018, will be fully recovered when he reports to spring training next year.

Surgery was the obvious decision. But obvious decisions are not always easy to make.

"The month and a half playing here in the major leagues was the happiest moments of my baseball career," Lee said through Korean interpreter Justin Han. "I'll never forget the time I've spent here this season. I'll keep it in my heart and for next season, I'll try to play better with the experience that I have. Baseball is something that I really love. I don't want to do anything else. I just want to come back with a strong mind."

The Giants will push forward without their primary leadoff hitter and center fielder, but it's a testament to Lee's quick endearment to coaches and teammates that their disappointment is resonating deepest on a personal level. Lee's teammates loved watching him sprint down the line on every ball in play and sprint after fly balls in the outfield with all-out effort. His coaches saw a player whose bat-to-ball skills were beginning to make an impact as he learned how major-league pitchers were attacking him. Perhaps Lee was something less than a sensation in his first six weeks in the major leagues. But he more than held his own. He did not appear overwhelmed. And he became a favorite with fans drawn to his seemingly ever-present joy.

"He just loves to play baseball," Giants manager Bob Melvin said. "It's sad that's been taken away from him."

"It's a real bummer," Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said. "We felt like he really hit the ground running this season and we saw a lot of good things. We felt like it was just going to continue to get better. Beyond the excitement he created, it seemed like he was becoming more and more important to our team success both offensively and defensively in center field. So it is really disappointing. We're expecting a full recovery and he's going to work hard and come back strong in 2025."

Lee traveled to Los Angeles on Thursday for a consultation with Dr. ElAttrache, who concurred with the Giants' opinion to undergo surgery to repair the torn labrum and stabilize the shoulder capsule in his non-throwing arm. Lee had a similar procedure in 2018 while playing for Kiwoom in the Korea Baseball Organization -- he initially dislocated his shoulder on a slide into a base, rehabbed the injury, then had surgery when the shoulder popped out again on a dive in the outfield -- but he hadn't dealt with any lingering issues before his wall-crashing attempt to catch a three-run double off the bat of the Cincinnati Reds' Jeimer Candelario on May 12.

"It's not how I thought about ending my rookie season," Lee said. "From all of my baseball career, this could be one of the most disappointing seasons I've had. For now I'm just trying to optimistically think not of the past but the future."

Lee showed no fear of outfield fences from the season-opening series at San Diego when he flung himself into the center-field wall while attempting to make a catch. He did the same in the following road series at Dodger Stadium. He collided with the wall in Boston's Fenway Park, too. An attempt at humor after the collision in Los Angeles now reads like ironic foreshadowing.

Lee acknowledged that he might have to be a bit more cautious in the future. He said he wasn't attempting to make an impression on his new teammates by going all-out in center field. He was merely trying to emulate San Diego Padres infielder Ha Seong Kim, his friend and former Kiwoom teammate.

"He puts 100 percent effort in any kind of play that he does," Lee said. "Also for me, I put 100 percent effort on any play that I do. I never thought this would happen to me. So I always put in 100 percent effort."

The Giants and Lee discussed whether he might attempt to rehab his shoulder, return to play a portion of the season and delay surgery until October. But given his youth and how much the Giants have invested in him ($113 million), the prime consideration was to give him the best chance at a fresh and healthy start in 2025.

"I'm making a decision for what I can do for the future," Lee said.

The Giants' immediate future in center field now includes Luis Matos, who got off to a rough defensive start in his first two games before making a home run robbery Wednesday in a victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Zaidi said Matos would receive an opportunity to establish himself and that the team believes that he can be a capable center fielder if he plays with a little more aggressiveness.

"Right now it's Luis's job," Zaidi said. "I think there was a little bit of an adjustment those first couple of days. We know he's got the ability to play good center field. We've seen it for stretches. I know our coaches are encouraged by the tools and just want him to be really aggressive. Outfield play comes easy to him so he can kind of glide to the ball and play with that rhythm. But we've asked him to really go all out, try to cover as much ground as you can. And (Wednesday's catch) was an unbelievable play. We know we can hit up here, we've seen it, and we've seen good defense in stretches. He's obviously pretty determined."

Marco Luciano also is poised to get a bit of runway at shortstop. The Giants kept Luciano and instead optioned infielder Casey Schmitt on Friday when they activated designated hitter Jorge Soler (sore shoulder) from the injured list. With shortstop Nick Ahmed (sprained wrist) just beginning light baseball activities, the Giants need to cover shortstop and could use a bit more turnover at the bottom of the lineup. Luciano hit just one home run at Triple-A Sacramento but was batting .266 while drawing more walks than he ever has. His .399 on-base percentage was among the Pacific Coast League leaders.

"Every game he plays he builds his case as a major-league shortstop," Zaidi said. "We feel like it's a good time to get him out there and give him a shot at this job. We really liked the approach. That was something that we saw improve a lot last year. ... He's got so much power that homers will come but if he can carry that at-bat quality up here, I think he's got a chance to get on a roll."

The Giants are hoping to activate catcher Patrick Bailey from the concussion list not long after he's eligible on Sunday. Bailey traveled to Pittsburgh to be examined by Dr. Mickey Collins, the same concussion expert who consulted with Brandon Belt, Marco Scutaro and others over the years. The Giants described Collins as "pleased" with Bailey's progress and cleared him to resume baseball activities over the weekend.

Outfielder Michael Conforto (hamstring) also is making progress toward a return. He began running drills on Friday. It might take a bit longer for outfielder Austin Slater, who continues to deal with concussion symptoms a week after colliding with the outfield wall on May 10.

The Giants received positive injury news on the pitching front after an MRI showed that right-hander Keaton Winn, who exited his start on Tuesday because of a right forearm cramp, did not sustain structural damage. Zaidi said the club discussed keeping Winn on the active roster because he wasn't expected to be sidelined for the minimum 15 days. But given his innings limitations this season, it made sense to give the right-hander a break. The club recalled right-hander Mason Black and will hand him the baseball Friday night in a home series opener against the streaking Colorado Rockies.

Slotting Black into Friday's start will allow the Giants to push back Kyle Harrison and Jordan Hicks, affording both pitchers an extra day of rest -- an important consideration because both Harrison and Hicks will have their own innings limitations as they pitch their first full season in a major-league rotation.

By this time next week, the Giants hope to be able to reintroduce left-hander Blake Snell (groin injury), who was expected to make a final rehab start for Triple-A Sacramento on Friday.

"We're sort of getting on the other side of this and getting guys back," Zaidi said of the team's injury morass, which claimed eight players in 11 days. "You start to look at the back end of this when we've got to start picking, 'OK, who can stay on their roster, who can we continue to find at-bats for?' So right now it's fun to get the chance to see these young guys."

But Lee will have to wait until 2025 to rejoin the fun on the field. And no part of that has been easy to accept.

"As much as anything, from day one of spring training, he never looked out of place," Zaidi said. "He was looking like he belonged. Seeing guys come from other leagues internationally, even guys who ascended to All-Star status here, they don't always hit the ground running right when they started. So he was way ahead of some other really good players that I've seen come over."