“He’ll be the fourth biggest of the Beast, behind Shohei Ohtani, Cody Bellinger, and Matt Chapman.”
It’s hard to put a lot of weight on a projection, but it’s also not necessarily wrong. Jim Bowden, a former Major League Baseball (MLB) general manager for Cincinnati and Washington and now a journalist, offered his take on the 25-year-old hitting the big league free agent market.
Bowden, a columnist for the local newspaper The Athletic, predicted the free agency market, which opened on Aug. 7. Bowden’s predictions are more often wrong than right, but his hit rate is not zero. Sometimes he’s right, so it’s worth taking his predictions with a grain of salt.
First, Bowden predicts 2023 World Series champion Texas as the destination for the most sought-after free agent, Shohei Ohtani. “Ohtani will sign with champion Texas. He’ll be the highest-paid player in sports history,” he said. “I think the Dodgers and Seattle will be the last two teams to compete for him.”
He predicted that starting pitcher Aaron Nola would sign a five-year, $125 million deal with the Dodgers and that Philadelphia, which failed to re-sign Nola, would sign left-handed starter Jordan Montgomery to a five-year, $127 million deal. There was also talk of the Yankees acquiring Juan Soto in a major trade with San Diego.
Aside from Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the biggest name in free agency, is expected to don the pinstripes. By signing Yamamoto to a seven-year, $211 million deal, the Yankees will have the highest team payroll in franchise history next year.
Here’s what he thought would happen next. “San Francisco signs Jung-Hoo Lee,” Bowden said. His contract would be the fourth-largest of the year, behind only Shohei Ohtani, Cody Bellinger, and Matt Chapman.”
It’s not an unlikely scenario. Late in the regular season, San Francisco general manager Pete Putilla traveled to Kocheok Dome to take a look at Lee. He even applauded Lee when he waved goodbye to fans at Samsung Electronics in Gocheok on March 10, despite not being fully fit. More than eight teams are interested in Lee, and San Francisco is considered to be the most interested team. 토토사이트
While the reports vary, it’s clear that there is a lot of interest in Lee. Free agent rankings often have Lee ranked between 10th and 20th. Along with San Francisco, Seattle and the Yankees are also expected to be in the running.
If Lee were to play in the MLB, the comparison models would be Dexter Fowler and Denard Span. The Athletic reported that Lee could be a quality outfielder with a .280 batting average and an OPS of over 0.800 if he settled in the middle of the order. The projected contract is for four years and $56 million. It is the largest contract ever offered to a KBO player to move to MLB.
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