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Dae-ho Lee

Mariners Sign Dae-ho Lee

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12:18pm: The Mariners have announced the minor league signing.

11:56am: The deal is done, with a physical already completed and an announcement expected in short order, according to Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times.

10:51am: Korean first baseman Dae-ho Lee has long been rumored to be negotiating with MLB clubs, and it appears that a deal could be in the works with the Mariners. A report from Korean baseball analyst Michael Min (Korean language link) says that Lee is in agreement on a one-year contract with Seattle that could pay him up to $4MM. (Jee-ho Yoo of Yonhap conveys the information in English.)

If something gets finalized, though, it may only be a minor league pact, Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune suggests (Twitter links). In that scenario, Lee would presumably need to crack the MLB roster out of camp and reach some incentives to maximize the available earnings.

Lee, 33, declined a player option with Japan’s Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in order to become a free agent and pursue an MLB opportunity. He is said to have been weighing offers from several MLB teams as well as his former employers in Nippon Professional Baseball. Because he is a true free agent with advanced professional experience, there is no posting fee or international spending cap involved in the deal.

After establishing himself in the Korea Baseball Organization, where he starred for the beter part of a decade, Lee moved to Japan for the start of the 2012 campaign. He’s been a steady producer there, generally mixing good on-base ability with a low strikeout rate and solid power. Last year, though, he took things to a new level, hitting 31 home runs and slashing .282/.364/.524 over 584 plate appearances.

It’s important to bear in mind, when weighing Lee’s numbers overseas against those carried by fellow Korean crossovers Jung Ho Kang and Byung-ho Park, that the NPB doesn’t feature the kind of unusually inflated batting lines found in the hitter-friendly KBO. Lee’s ..892 OPS last season was the fourth-best mark in the league. In fact, only eleven players reached the .800 threshold — including familiar names such as Wily Mo Pena, Cuban star Alfredo Despaigne, and Lee’s former teammate Nobuhiro Matsuda, who flirted with his own MLB bid this winter.

Ultimately, Lee is a hard player to peg, but obviously has shown enough with the bat to intrigue. He’s quite sizable and seems unlikely to see the field without a first baseman’s mitt, if he does more than DH. MLBTR’s Zach Links (Twitter link) recently asked a Korean scout for a comp for the veteran slugger. “Maybe Carlos Lee minus some power,” he was told. “It’s tough. He is not typical, that’s for sure.”

For Seattle, that skillset would seem to put the Korean star on track to pair up with Adam Lind in a first base platoon. He could also see time in the DH slot when Nelson Cruz slots in at right field. Regardless, the fit is clear, and Lee would figure to receive a fair number of plate appearances in part-time duty.

Notably, that role had seemed destined to go to former top prospect Jesus Montero, with former big leaguer Gaby Sanchez providing competition in camp. Instead, it seems, Montero may need to compete with Lee to earn his way onto the active roster and remain a significant part of the organization’s plans moving forward.

International Notes: Lee, Fernandez, Heredia, Bell

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KBO and NPB slugger Dae-ho Lee is reportedly drawing interest from MLB organizations, and has put up some strong numbers over the years. But he remains a difficult player to peg, as a Korean scout tells MLBTR’s Zach Links (Twitter link). “Maybe Carlos Lee minus some power,” the scout said when asked for a comp. “It’s tough. He is not typical, that’s for sure.”

Here are some more international notes, courtesy of Baseball America’s Ben Badler, who has a significant update on currently (or soon-to-be) available Cuban talent that isn’t subject to bonus pool restrictions.

  • Cuban infielder Jose Fernandez has long had his share of attention, though he’s been delayed in reaching the majors. While he is on track to finally have that chance, once he achieves free agency, he’s had to delay his scheduled showcase, Badler notes. It appears that Fernandez has dengue fever, which would certainly make it hard for him to put his best foot forward for scouts. It’s worth noting, too, that it’s already proving to be a tough time to sign for established major league infielders, though it’s always hard to know how things will look in a few months’ time.
  • Outfielder Guillermo Heredia is still unsigned despite a lengthy stint on the open market, with teams not sold on his bat. The Cubs and Astros are among the teams that have had him in for private workouts, though, Badler says.
  • Badler provides plenty of interesting analysis and insight into a variety of other players, including “unorthodox” but “tooled up” infielder Luis Yander La O and outfielder Yadiel Hernandez (who Badler compares to Daniel Nava). Shortstop Luis Valdes would draw interest, says Badler, and appears to be off of the island and readying to attempt a big league career. Outfielder Urmani Guerra is set to showcase on February 4th and could profile as a fourth outfielder. And outfielder/infielder Maikel Caceres, 32, could get a shot with an organization. He is said to have drawn some interest from the Padres and Tigers.
  • Outfielder Alexei Bell has long been a successful player in Cuba and internationally, but like Lee he’s facing a hard-to-guess market situation as a player who is already well into his thirties. Of course, he’s still waiting to reach free agency and put on a showcase on February 15, so we don’t yet have much of an idea of what kind of interest he’ll receive, though Badler says that interest has waned as Bell has aged. If you want to get an idea of his physical skills, be sure to check out this highlight video.

Latest On Korean First Baseman Dae-Ho Lee

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Korean first baseman Dae-ho Lee, who has spent the past two seasons playing for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, is weighing offers from three Major League teams, according to a Korean media report from Michael Min (hat tip: Han Lee of Global Sporting Integration, on Twitter). Recently, Jee-ho Yoo of Korea’s Yonhap News Agency wrote that Lee was planning to return home this weekend after training with his former team, the Korea Basbeall Organization’s Lotte Giants, in Arizona. However, Yoo now reports that Lee will postpone his trip to meet with an MLB club. It’s not clear whether the team with which Lee is meeting this weekend is a new entrant into the bidding or if he’s continuing negotiations with a club to which he has already spoken. Notably, Yoo also says that the Hawks would like to re-sign Lee and are slated to begin their own Spring Training next week, perhaps creating an urgency to make a decision.

A right-handed hitter, the 33-year-old Lee is an accomplished player in both NPB and in the KBO. He’s OPSed well over .800 across the past four seasons in Japan, including a very strong .282/.368/.524 batting line with 31 homers and 30 doubles this past season in Japan. A former KBO MVP, Lee has a lifetime batting line of .303/.387/.514 and a career-high 44 home runs, coming back in 2010 (although that was at age 28, and he’s traditionally been more of a 25- to 30-homer bat).

Lee, who is listed at 6’4″ and 286 pounds, is limited to first base and designated hitter from a defensive standpoint, but there are many clubs that could look to add someone of that skill set with his type of upside — especially if the current asking price is one year, as the Japanese report above indicates. The Astros don’t have a definitive answer at first base to begin the season, for instance, and Lee could present competition for Jon Singleton and serve as a stopgap to top prospect A.J. Reed. The Cardinals could consider him a potential platoon partner for Brandon Moss and/or Matt Adams, while the Mariners could look at him in a similar light and hope to pair him with Adam Lind. All of those fits, of course, are speculative.

Back in December, Lee’s reported goals were to sign with a winning club that offered the opportunity for regular playing time. It might be difficult to come by a contending team with a notable hole at first base or DH at this point (although Houston does fit that bill to some extent). Lee met with multiple clubs at last month’s Winter Meetings in Nashville, though little has been reported in terms of the teams to which he has actually spoken. The Pirates were said at one point to have some interest in Lee, though Pittsburgh does have Mike Morse and the since-acquired Jason Rogers as potential in-house options as right-handed-hitting first basemen.

NL Central Notes: Davis, Holliday, Walker, Lee

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The Cardinals didn’t have a strong interest in Chris Davis at the start of December and not much seems to have changed in two weeks, as USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets that the Cards still aren’t keen on the free agent slugger.  Of course, quite a bit has happened in the last two weeks, as St. Louis has come up short in its pursuit of such top-tier free agents as Jason Heyward and David Price.  Rather than sign Davis, the Cards seem prepared to use a Brandon Moss/Matt Adams platoon at first base this season (not to mention Stephen Piscotty also on hand as an option at first).  Here’s more from around the NL Central…

  • The Cardinals’ interest in Alex Gordon is complicated by Matt Holliday’s presence in left, FOX Sports’ Jon Morosi writes.  Aside from a handful of games at DH, Holliday has never played anywhere other than left field during his 12-year career, so someone like Gordon would have to be okay with playing in center or right for 2016 — Holliday is only under contract through this season.  Holliday has a no-trade clause, and he’s probably unlikely to waive it to go elsewhere this late in his career.  Morosi also floats an interesting little conspiracy theory, noting that Holliday and Davis are both represented by Scott Boras; so if Holliday refuses a trade and blocks a Gordon signing, that could theoretically make St. Louis a suitor for Davis if the club is intent on adding another big bat.
  • The history of Neil Walker’s long-term extension talks with the Pirates is compiled in a very interesting piece from Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.  Walker turned down a multi-year offer from the Bucs in his 2010 rookie year and talks didn’t pick up again until last winter.  The Pirates offered a three-year, $27MM extension that would’ve covered Walker’s last two arb years and his first free agent year; that was countered by a two-year, $19MM offer from Walker’s camp but the Pirates wanted a team option on that 2017 free agent year.  “The offer wasn’t very realistic.  And there was no negotiating in between. It was, ‘Here it is.’ When we countered, there was no response, so we went to the [arbitration] hearing,” Walker said.  That hearing ended up being “probably the point when I lost all faith in the organization,” as Walker was put off by the Pirates’ assessment of his play and figured his days were numbered in Pittsburgh.  Walker’s tenure with the Bucs ended last week when he was traded to the Mets for Jon Niese.  On the Walker negotiations, GM Neal Huntington said that “every agreement has to find a common middle ground. We’ve been successful on other fronts. This one was not successful. We’re as much at fault as anybody.”
  • The Pirates have some level of interest in Korean first baseman/DH Dae-ho Lee, according to Biertempfel (on Twitter).  Lee met with GMs from four clubs in Nashville, per Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News (on Twitter), though it’s not clear whether the Pirates were one of those teams.  Lee feels that he might not have a deal by the end of 2015, though he could sign sometime in January (link to Yoo’s Twitter).
  • The Cubs “had a lot of lines in the water” on the trade market, an NL executive tells Joel Sherman of the New York Post.  “The expectation is,” as Sherman writes, that the aggressive Cubs will make another big move to add a front-of-the-rotation young starter, and are dangling Jorge Soler and/or Javier Baez to make such a deal happen.

MLBTR’s Zach Links also contributed to this post

Quick Hits: Cueto, Ozuna, Gordon, Lee, Sale

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Bryce Dixon, Johnny Cueto’s agent, tells ESPNdeportes.com’s Enrique Rojas that it was an easy call for his client to reject the six-year, $120MM contract recently offered to him by the Diamondbacks.  “It was a low offer for the market,” Dixon said. “We didn’t have to think hard to reject that offer.  Arizona wanted to do something fast, but we didn’t want to take something below market value for a No. 1 starter, and with the recent events, I think that time gave us the reason.”  Indeed, Cueto now stands as the top arm on the market after the last week’s flurry of free agent pitching signings, and Dixon has enough leverage that he and Cueto don’t need to rush the decision.  “I don’t have a specific timetable….We have some offers and we will have several meetings in Nashville, but right now I could not tell if Cueto will have a team after the conclusion of the meetings. We have plenty of time until the beginning of the season,” Dixon said.

Here’s more from around baseball, as the Winter Meetings news avalanche has already begun…

  • During a conference call with media (including MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro) on Thursday, Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill denied that the team was shopping either Jose Fernandez or Marcell Ozuna.  Many reports have suggested that the Fish are unlikely and not really willing to deal Fernandez in absence of a stunning offer, though Ozuna has been one of the more openly talked-about trade candidates of the offseason.  “Contrary to some of the myriad of rumors out there, we are not actively shopping [Ozuna],” Hill said.  “Clubs are coming after him because he’s a talented player….When someone calls, we listen to see if it is something that makes sense, both in the short-term and the long-term.”  While Hill could be engaging in some gamesmanship here, it’s also possible he’s being truthful, and that interest in Ozuna has been so heavy that the Marlins actually haven’t needed to make any calls about him themselves.
  • The Royals haven’t abandoned the idea of re-signing Alex Gordon since they’re waiting on the outfield market to become more defined, Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets.
  • First baseman Dae-ho Lee is on his way to the Winter Meetings, the Korean slugger told media (including Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News) before departing from Incheon to Nashville.  Lee’s agent has informed him that “four to five teams are showing interest” in his services, and if possible, he’d like to sign with “a championship-caliber team” that can offer him regular playing time.  Lee has put up big power numbers over career in KBO and NPB, though he is coming to North American at a rather advanced age (33) for a first-time player.  In opting out of his contract with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, Lee walked away from 600 million yen (or roughly $4.9MM) for the 2016 season, Yoo notes on Twitter.
  • Yoo’s piece also notes that Lee is represented by both the Seoul-based Montis Sports Management Group and the MVP Sports Group.
  • Chris Sale’s contract is often cited as one of the most team-friendly in the sport, and though it’s been even more dwarfed by this winter’s giant pitcher contracts, the White Sox ace tells MLB.com’s Scott Merkin that he has no regrets about his early-career extension.  “I knew exactly what I was getting into at the time I was getting into it, and I could not have asked for anything more,” Sale said, also noting that he thinks “to just keep playing the game as a kid and not have to worry about the business side, I think it has done me a lot of good.”  Sale’s extension guaranteed him $32.5MM from 2013-17, and Chicago has club options on the left-hander for 2018 and 2019 that could add another $26MM to the deal.

International Notes: Thames, Lee, Cuba

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Korean stars Jae-gyun Hwang and Byung-ho Park may soon be joining countryman Jung-ho Kang in making the KBO to MLB transition. (Hwang will be posted next Monday, while Park is in a negotiating window with the Twins.) But perhaps the most interesting trans-Pacific baseball story is playing out on the Korean peninsula. Former big league outfielder Eric Thames was recently named the 2015 KBO MVP. Thames, who just turned 29, showed some pop and promise in North America, but never quite seized an opportunity and moved to Korea after he failed to receive a big league call-up in his age-26 campaign. All he’s done since is devastate his new league, putting up consecutive seasons with an OPS of over 1.100.  Thames is under contract with the NC Dinos for one more campaign, but figures to draw strong interest from Japan’s NPB as well as major league organizations if he can post anything approaching his 2015 numbers, which were ridiculous even for the hitter-friendly KBO: .381/.497/.790 with 47 home runs and 40 stolen bases in 595 plate appearances.

If you’re interested in taking a peek at Thames’ exploits, check out this Naver Sports highlight video. Here are some other notes on the international market:

  • Free agent first baseman Dae-ho Lee — a South Korean who has been playing in Japan — will visit the United States in early December to meet with MLB clubs, according to another report from Yoo. The 33-year-old power hitter is drawing interest from “multiple” teams, his Korean agency (Montis) tells Yoo. He’s already shown he ability to excel in both the KBO and NPB and last year was his best in Japan, as he slashed .282/.368/.524 with 31 home runs.
  • While the Asian markets have grabbed much of the recent attention, Cuba remains a hotbed for international activity. Baseball America’s Ben Badler has the latest on a variety of intriguing players from the neighboring island. The Reds appear to be in the lead to sign slick defender Alfredo Rodriguez, says Badler, while the Cubs and Dodgers are expected to lead the charge on other bonus-pool-bound players that become eligible to sign out of Cuba.
  • Badler also has some updates on a group of other touted players. Outfielder Guillermo Heredia and righty Vladimir Gutierrez are training in Florida and holding private workouts, while pitchers Norge Ruiz and Cionel Perez are set to hold showcases in the coming weeks.

KBO Notes: Kim, Son, Hwang

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Korean outfielder Hyun-soo Kim (whose name is occasionally Romanized as Hyeon-soo Kim) confirms today that he’s interesting in signing with an MLB team, Yonhap News Agency reports. (Yahoo! Sports’ Jeff Passan had previously reported that Kim was looking to continue his career in North America.) Kim has recently been involved in the Premier 12 tournament in Tokyo.  “I haven’t had a chance to set specific plans for my future because I wanted to concentrate on the Premier 12,” he says. “I will have to talk to my agent afterward, but there’s no reason to turn down interest from major league clubs. I’d love to play in the majors.” Kim has played nine seasons for the Doosan Bears, batting an excellent .318/.406/.488 in what Passan notes is a tough hitting environment by KBO standards. Kim doesn’t have the power that Byung-ho Park and Jung-ho Kang demonstrated in Korea, but he’s a terrific contact hitter. “He’s just great at putting bat on ball,” a scout told Passan. “He’s got a Royals-type offensive profile.” He’s also still just 27, and as an international free agent, he’s free to sign with any team and won’t require a posting fee.

  • With Kang already having a year under his belt with the Pirates, and with Park, Ah-seop Son, Kim and Seung-hwan Oh potentially attracting interest this offseason (along with first Dae-ho Lee, a Korean first baseman who was playing in Japan), there’s no shortage of intrigue surrounding Korean players looking to join MLB teams. It’s possible that the talent in the KBO has simply improved recently, Joe Lemire of USA Today writes. But it’s also possible the increased interest is due not so much to improved talent in Korea, but to changes in the ways MLB teams are allowed to pursue talent. “There’s only so many avenues to acquire players,” says an NL executive. “With the cap on draft and international (amateur free agents), now you can go over there and acquire big league-ready players, and it doesn’t go against your spending cap.” Experts feel that about a dozen players in the KBO are capable of handling the jump to the Majors, writes Lemire.
  • Many executives prefer third baseman Jae-gyun Hwang to Son, his Lotte Giants teammate, Passan writes. The problem is a rule that stipulates that a KBO team cannot accept bids on two players that have been posted in the same offseason. The bidding for Son will conclude Monday. If Lotte accept the top bid, then it risks allowing Hwang to leave as a free agent next season without collecting a posting fee for him. Son, on the other hand, is not eligible for free agency until after 2017, so Lotte might be able to maximize its earnings by rejecting the top bid for Son, taking bids on Hwang, and posting Son again next year. The team, however, earned negative publicity when it refused to allow Son to skip a road trip to be with his dying father, so it’s possible the Giants could accept Son’s bid as a way of avoiding the perception that they’re treating him unfairly.

Dae-ho Lee Becomes Free Agent, Seeks MLB Deal

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First baseman Dae-ho Lee has declined his 2016 player option with the Fukuoka SoftBak Hawks, he announced (story via Jee-ho Yoo of Yonhap News). He added that he intends to pursue a contract with a major league organization.

The South Korean has played in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league since 2012. He moved there after more than a decade in the Korean Baseball Organization.

Unlike many other international players covered here at MLBTR, Lee will be looking to make the jump at the (relatively) advanced age of 33. That isn’t an unprecedented number, but it obviously limits his earning capacity and will reduce the number of teams that have interest in guaranteeing him money.

Lee has shown plenty with his right-handed bat, though, swatting 31 home runs and posting a .282/.364/.524 slash last year in the highly competitive NPB. That was his best overall campaign, but he has been quite consistently productive in Japan’s top league and the KBO before that.

Notably, because he is a free agent, Lee won’t require a posting fee. That eliminates some complications from the process and ought to drop the overall asking price. Presumably, the veteran will be looking first and foremost for opportunity, and it’s easy to imagine a variety of teams rolling the dice if the price is right.

“All baseball players dream of playing in the majors, and I’d like to pursue that dream,” Lee explained in his press conference. “If I can give 100 percent, like I’ve done throughout my career, I don’t think it will be impossible.”

Free Agent Notes: Lee, Cueto, Gordon, O’Day

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Korean first baseman Dae-ho Lee, who is currently with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, could draw interest from Major League teams if he turns down his 2016 player option, ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick notes (links to Twitter). The right-handed hitter will turn 34 next June, so he’s a good bit older than some other international free agents we’ve heard about, but Lee’s .282/.364/.524 batting line and 31 homers in 2015 are nonetheless impressive. Lee has enough service time that he is exempt from the posting process. In other words, if he turns down the option, he could jump right into a free agent class of first basemen that’s currently headlined by Chris Davis and Korean star Byung-ho Park.

A few more notes on some upcoming free agents…

  • Joel Sherman of the New York Post looks at the postseason’s impact on the price tag for free agents Johnny Cueto, Yoenis Cespedes, Ben Zobrist, Alex Gordon and Daniel Murphy. Relaying some chatter from executives with whom he’s spoken, Sherman has heard some liken Cueto to James Shields a year ago. Shields hit the open market with higher expectations than the four years and $75MM he ultimately landed, though that, in my eyes, is still too low a price for Cueto, who is younger with a more dominant track record and no qualifying offer attached to his name. More surprising is the lack of support for Gordon, who “could” get to somewhere north of $75MM over five years with the benefit of open-market bidding, Sherman writes. A five-year $75MM contract for Gordon seems to me to be very much on the low end of the spectrum. While others at MLBTR are more bullish on Gordon than I am, I still think he’ll end up much closer to, if not north of $100MM as a free agent. Sherman also suggests a contract in the four-year, $68MM range as a possibility for Zobrist despite his advanced age.
  • Fans shouldn’t be dismissive of recent suggestions that the Red Sox could make a play for Gordon this winter, writes WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford. Pursuing Gordon is an idea that “has at least been considered” by the Red Sox’ inner circle, he writes, noting that Gordon’s glove would maintain an elite outfield defense in Boston and possibly allow the team to include Jackie Bradley in trade packages.
  • Free agency is looming around the corner and comes with significant ramifications for the Orioles, who could potentially lose Chris Davis, Wei-Yin Chen, Matt Wieters, Darren O’Day, Gerardo Parra and Steve Pearce, writes the Baltimore Sun’s Dan Connolly. However, Connolly hears that the Orioles have had talks with many of those players, and agent Jeff Borris, who represents O’Day, told Connolly that the conversations he’s had with the Orioles won’t stop even with free agency nearing. “We’ve had ongoing discussions with Baltimore throughout the season and I plan on continuing to have ongoing discussions with Baltimore,” said Borris. “However, time is of the essence because free agency is right around the corner.” 

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