Not everyone can hold the hand of a super agent. Scott Boras, one of the best agents in North American professional sports, is famous for having only baseball players as clients. His professionalism and negotiating skills, developed only in the major leagues over 40 years, have put him in the ranks of the ‘devil’.
Lee Jeong-hoo (25, Kiwoom Heroes), who dreams of entering the major leagues at the end of this year, became a customer of Boras.
New York Post columnist John Heyman said on the 25th (Korean time), ‘KBO League MVP Lee Jung-hoo hired Boras Corporation as his agent. Lee Jung-hoo is an outfielder who will become a free agent at the age of 25 after this season.” With this, Boras became an agent with Lee Jeong-hoo and Shim Jun-seok as active Korean players. Shim Jun-seok departed for a contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates on the 24th.
The fact that Boras held Lee Jung-hoo’s hand means a lot. They foresaw that Lee Jung-hoo had a very high chance of succeeding in the major leagues. It is no exaggeration to say that Lee Jung-hoo’s reputation among major league clubs has already been established.
In Fangraph’s ‘2023 International Prospect Ranking’, Lee Jung-hoo ranked 5th. Fan Grafs praises Lee Jung-hoo, saying, “His walks far outnumber strikeouts, and he has the most beautiful swing in the world as a hitter with both power and accuracy.” For Boras Corporation, it means that it has finally secured a Korean customer that it has worked hard for many years.
Lee Jung-hoo is a free agent from a third country professional league over the age of 25, so he can sit on a cushion as much as he wants.
Park Chan-ho, Choo Shin-soo, and Ryu Hyun-jin are representative examples of Boras representing Korean players. They hit the jackpot with Boras at the fore. In December 2001, Park Chan-ho signed a 5-year, $65 million free agent contract with the Texas Rangers, in December 2013, Choo Shin-soo signed a 7-year, $130 million free agent contract with the Texas Rangers, and in December 2012, Ryu Hyun-jin signed a 6-year, $36 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The signing and a four-year, $80 million free agent contract with the Toronto Blue Jays in December 2019 are all credited to Boras. The total amount of contracts that these three received through Boras alone amounted to a total of 311 million dollars (approximately 383.7 billion won). 메이저사이트
Lee Jung-hoo is expected to receive the highest amount of money based on the initial contract among all players who entered the major leagues from the KBO League. The record for the highest amount in this category is the $36 million that Ryu Hyun-jin received when he joined the Dodgers.
As the evaluation of Asian beasts has recently increased, major league interest in Lee Jung-hoo is also growing. Lee Jung-hoo can easily be compared with Masataka Yoshida, a Japanese outfielder who signed a five-year, $90 million contract with the Boston Red Sox this winter. It is similar that he has both his excellent pioneering eye and power. Yoshida is ranked 7th, below Lee Jung-hoo, in the fan graphs ranking.
Boras signed contracts worth $1.011 billion this offseason, including Xander Bogatz (11 years, $280 million), Carlos Correa (6 years, $200 million), and Carlos Rodon (6 years, $162 million). paid It’s been three years since 2020 when Gerrit Cole, Steven Strasburg, and Ryu Hyun-jin led negotiations that Boras posted $1 billion in sales in a single offseason.
Boras, who was working at a law firm, started working as a major league agent in 1980 and took charge of almost all milestone contracts. Kevin Brown, who was the first to exceed $100 million, and Alex Rodriguez, who had the first $200 million contract, and Bryce Harper, Corey Seeger, and Cole among the 12 currently maintaining contracts of $300 million are Boras customers. One of the $500 million candidates, Juan Soto, is also led by Boras.