After the World Baseball Classic ended in 2023, Lee Jung-hoo (27) of San Francisco appeared in one photo, drawing attention from baseball fans in both Korea and Japan. The photo showed Lee Jung-hoo and Masataka Yoshida (32) of Boston posing side by side with their bat.온라인바카라
In the photo posted on Yoshida's social networking service (SNS), Lee wrote "YOSHIDA brother" in Korean on his bat. Lee's respect and preference for Yoshida can be felt. In fact, Lee and Yoshida are quite similar to each other. They mainly focused on left-handed hitters, outfielders, and elaborate contacts, and they succeeded again. As they have similar tendencies, they may have attracted each other more.
Yoshida signed a five-year contract worth 90 million U.S. dollars with the Boston Red Sox ahead of the 2023 season. The WBC News took place right after the signing. Lee Jung-hoo was also dreaming of entering the Major League at the time, so Yoshida may have come closer as a more special person. However, their promise to play again soon has rarely been kept. Last year, Lee played in only 37 games due to his injury, and this year, Yoshida disappeared from the Major League.
Lee displayed his best performance in the early days of this season, and confidently challenged himself to the position of Asia's best outfielder. On the other hand, Yoshida is still going through a hard time as she is still on the injured list. In fact, she performed spring training relatively normally. She played in 11 games and posted a batting average of 0.286. Still, the fact that she cannot afford to participate in actual games is closely related to the situation at Boston.
The Boston Red Sox hired Alex Bregman, one of the best third basemen in the league, ahead of this season. The move was aimed at strengthening the team's offense capability. As a result, there has been a series of shifts in positions. Raphael Devers, who is currently the main third basemen and has a stellar career including All-Star, has moved to the designated hitter position. Bregman was a little better compared with Devers' defense capabilities. There were plans to put Bregman at second base and Devers at third base, but Boston ended traffic control by using Devers as its designated hitter.
Yoshida has a firestorm. Yoshida is an outfielder, but he is evaluated as a below-average outfielder in the Major League. In fact, the Boston Red Sox had known about this since they joined the team. In 2023, they watched a lot of outfield defense, but in 2024, they played a lot more games as designated hitters. With Devers becoming the designated hitter, Yoshida can now play only when he plays defense. However, shoulder surgery has hampered him.
In order to play as a designated hitter, he can continue to rehabilitate and play, but he needs to make his shoulder perfect because he has to throw a ball. It takes that time. The timing of his return to the Major League has not been decided yet, as he has yet to start a minor league rehabilitation game.
If it's rehabilitation that you have to do anyway, you can do it with patience, but the situation is not easy. Boston is already in a situation where all of its outfield prospects are on the Major League stage or waiting. They are younger and have better athletic abilities than Yoshida. Even if it's because of defense, it's not easy for Yoshida to push them out in the long run.
In the end, in order to settle down, it must be helpful in offense, even at the risk of a decline in defense. However, this is also not easy. Yoshida recorded on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) of 0.783 in 2023, and 0.765 in 2024. The adjusted OPS was 109 in 2023 and 113 in 2024. This is about 10 percent above the league average. This is not appropriate for a designated hitter who focuses on offense, and even more not appropriate for a player who receives an average of 18 million U.S. dollars a year.
For this reason, rumors that the Boston Red Sox would trade Yoshida have circulated wildly since the middle of last year's season. However, there has been no outcome yet. Compared to Yoshida's performance, the Boston Red Sox have higher salaries and lower defense utilization. In fact, whether the Boston Red Sox should cover all of Yoshida's annual salary to make a trade or not.
While local media believe that Boston will make a decision at some point, it is also disadvantageous for him that Yoshida is not in such an urgent situation now, with Boston's early season winning percentage exceeding 50 percent. It is also interesting to see how he can meet Lee on the ground. Maybe he is not wearing a Boston uniform. The biggest crisis in his career is here.