After one year with the Seattle Mariners, Dae-ho Lee is heading back to Korea to play for his original professional team.
Daayy-O! Daaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy-O! That’s one tune fans of the Seattle Mariners won’t be hearing in the upcoming season. Last year, the unmistakable beginning of the Harry Belafonte song would play from the loudspeaker at Safeco Field whenever Dae-ho Lee stepped to the plate and the fans would join in on the fun.
The Mariners signed the slugger to a one-year Minor League contract last February. He was acquired to be the right-handed half of a first base platoon with Adam Lind and he got off to a great start. Through June 16, he was hitting .298/.339/.570, with 10 home runs and 27 RBI in his first 121 plate appearances. He also got on the good side of Seattle fans with an early-season, 10th-inning walk-off home run against the Texas Rangers.
Lee was coming off of a great year in the Japan Pacific League when the Mariners signed him. In 2015, he’d hit .282/.368/.524, with 31 homers and 98 RBI. Early on with the Mariners he showed that same pop in his bat. He also had a hefty 6’4”, 250-pound body and an even bigger smile, and soon became a fan favorite in Seattle.
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After getting off to such a good start, Lee struggled over the rest of the season. From June 17 on, he hit .225/.296/.337, with just four homers in 196 plate appearances. The Mariners acquired left-handed hitting first baseman Dan Vogelbach in a trade during the 2016 season and right-handed hitting first baseman Danny Valencia in a November trade, so there was no spot for Lee on the 2017 team.
With the MLB free agent market saturated with right-handed power bats, Lee is returning to Korea to play with his first professional team, the Lotte Giants of the Korea Baseball Organization. He’ll get a guaranteed $12.9 million over four years, which is $4.3 million more than any previous KBO free agent contract.
Dae-Ho Lee's contract with his old Korean club, Lotte Giants, is the largest ever handed to a free agent over here. By about $4.3 million.
— Jeeho Yoo (@Jeeho_1) January 24, 2017
It’s a smart move for Lee. He gets the guaranteed money and will play regularly, something he wasn’t likely to do if he had been able to catch on with a team here in the states. In a different off-season, Lee might have found a place to play in the Major Leagues. This was not that off-season.
Lee is a right-handed power hitter without much defensive value. There are still a few guys left on the free agent market who fit that profile. Last year’s National League home run leader, Chris Carter, is still available. He hit 41 home runs in 2016 and is five years younger than Lee. Mike Napoli is the same age as Lee and is coming off a 34-homer, 101-RBI season. Both are still available to any team. Even Mark Reynolds, at two years younger than Lee and coming off a better season, was likely to find a team before Lee would.
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So Dae-ho Lee will head back to Korea to play on a team for which he once hit 44 home runs in a season. Mariner fans will miss him, but I’m sure they’ll wish him the best of luck. Daayy-O! Daaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy-O!