“Lee Jung-hoo met Dr. Neal Elatrache in Los Angeles and was recommended for shoulder surgery,” the San Francisco Giants said on the 18th (Korea Standard Time). “Lee will undergo joint and sequential suture of his left shoulder within a few weeks. He will not be on the ground in 2024.”
“Lee will undergo rehabilitation for six months. It is difficult to play this season, but medical staff said they could recover completely,” said Farhan Zaidi, president of the baseball division. He hoped that Lee would return in 2025 without suffering aftereffects of injury.
Lee Jung-hoo jumped to catch Jaymer Candelario’s ball in the top of the first inning of a home game against the Cincinnati Reds at Oracle Park in San Francisco, California, on the 13th and hit the fence strongly.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examination revealed structural damage to Lee Jung-hoo’s left shoulder, and Lee Jung-hoo moved to Los Angeles on the 17th to meet Dr. Elatrache.
Dr. Elatrache is a world-renowned surgery doctor in sports. He is famous among Korean baseball fans for having surgery on Ryu Hyun-jin’s shoulder and elbow.
Many sports stars around the world, as well as MLB, entrust Dr. Elatrache with the surgery.
Last year, MLB superstar Shohei Ohtani (Los Angeles Dodgers) underwent elbow surgery by Dr. Elatrache.
This is the second time Lee Jung-hoo has undergone shoulder surgery.
Lee Jung-hoo injured his left shoulder while sliding against the Doosan Bears in Jamsil on June 19, 2018, when he played for the Nexen Heroes (currently Kiwoom) in the Korean professional baseball league.
Although he returned to the ground after a month by pulling the rehabilitation clock, Lee Jung-hoo injured his left shoulder again while throwing himself and catching the ball in the bottom of the ninth inning of the second round of the semi-playoff against the Hanwha Eagles in Daejeon on October 20 of that year.
Eventually, Lee Jung-hoo underwent an anterior and inferior left shoulder joint and net suture in November 2018.
Even after undergoing surgery, Lee Jung-hoo accelerated his rehabilitation, completing his rehabilitation in four months, faster than the expected six months before the surgery, and playing the 2019 regular season opener normally.
Lee Jung-hoo, who had a career batting average of 0.340 while playing in the KBO League until 2023, entered the big league with a six-year, $113 million contract with San Francisco ahead of this season.
Lee Jung-hoo posted a batting average of 0.262 (38 hits in 145 at-bats), two homers, eight RBIs, two steals, and an OPS of 0.641 in 37 MLB games this year.
The classical record was not satisfactory, but he showed off San Francisco’s expected pioneering plan by hitting the top 1% swing ratio (9.6%) and strikeout ratio (8.2%).
The batting speed was 89.1 miles per hour (143.3 kilometers), slightly higher than the MLB average of 88.5 miles (142.4 kilometers).
But he couldn’t escape the injury trap.
The scene of complaining of pain due to shoulder pain is likely to be Lee Jung-hoo’s last memory of the first season of MLB.
Lee Jung-hoo, who will soon schedule a surgery and start rehabilitation, said in an interview with local reporters including The Athletic, “The past month and a half of playing in MLB is the most unforgettable time in my baseball life.”먹튀검증