After the 2023 season, KBO league best hitter Lee Jung-hoo (25, Kiwoom Heroes), who is challenging to advance to the American professional baseball major league (MLB), joined hands with ‘super agent’ Scott Boras (71) .
Boras Corporation announced the recruitment news on social media on the 25th (Korean time), saying, “Welcome to Lee Jung-hoo.”
Boras Corporation also introduced Lee Jung-hoo posing with Boras CEO at the office in Los Angeles, USA.
His father, LG Twins coach Lee Jong-beom, and his mother, Jeong Yeon-hee, also attended the event, attracting attention.
Prior to this, John Heyman, a columnist for the New York Post, tweeted, “Lee Jung-hoo, who is the MVP of the KBO League and will challenge the U.S. after this season, has appointed Boras as his agent.”
Nicknamed ‘a devil for the club, an angel for the players’, Boras is an agent representing the major leagues.
As an agent for Park Chan-ho (50) and Ryu Hyun-jin (36, Toronto Blue Jays), Boras, who is familiar to domestic baseball fans, has dominated the big league player market for decades with his ability to identify players’ talents and unique bargaining power.
In particular, in Stove League in 2019, when Ryu Hyun-jin moved from the Los Angeles Dodgers to Toronto, he opened the era of “1 billion dollars (approximately 1.2344 trillion won)” as an agent for the first time.
Boras is known to have received about 61.7 billion won in Korean currency, or 50 million dollars, which is 5% of the total amount, as a commission when he exceeded the total amount of 1 billion dollars of free agent (FA) contracts he had as a customer that year.
In this Stove League, Boras signed an 11-year, $280 million contract with shortstop Sander Bohartz (31) from the San Diego Padres.
It was Boras who led the Pittsburgh Pirates’ contract with fastball prospect Shim Jun-seok (19, Deoksu High School), who chose to challenge the big leagues. 메이저놀이터
However, Boras did not succeed in all contracts.
KIA Tigers outfielder Na Seong-beom (34) knocked on the big league door in partnership with Boras through the posting system (private competitive bidding) after the end of the 2020 season when he played for the NC Dinos.
However, his contract failed because the major league market, which had been groaning in the aftermath of the new coronavirus infection (Corona 19), was frozen.
Lee Jung-hoo, who had the best season by winning 5 KBO League batting crowns in the 2022 season, was ready to jump into the big league stage early.
After the end of this season, Lee Jung-hoo, who qualified for overseas leagues through the posting system, received approval from the club.
In order to target the ball of a major league pitcher, he is pouring sweat to revise his batting form for the first time since he turned pro in 2017.
The most pressing concern is whether Lee Jung-hoo’s direct MLB contract from the KBO will be concluded.
The previous record was a total of 36 million dollars over six years, or 44.4 billion won in Korean money, which Ryu Hyun-jin received when he signed a contract with the Dodgers in 2013.
Lee Jung-hoo, who is evaluated to be able to work even if he jumps into the big leagues right now, joins hands with Boras and aims to surpass Ryu Hyun-jin’s contract size of 10 years.