Jung Hoo Lee is heading back to South Korea this offseason, and he says the plan is simple: keep working as if nothing about the calendar has changed.
With a work stoppage looming, Lee said Saturday before the Giants’ penultimate game that he expects his routine to stay the same as it has been in each of his first two offseasons with the club. Through interpreter Justin Han, he said he’ll spend the next few months at home and prepare as though spring training is still set for February.
“I think the only difference is it’s hard to say when spring training and opening day is going to be,” Lee said. “But I’m just going to prepare for it like any of the other seasons. It’s going to be a normal offseason for me, personally.”
For Lee, it has been a productive year. He played in 143 games, the second-most on a Giants roster that has been in near-constant flux. He’ll finish the season on the injured list because of a groin injury, but the overall line tells the story of a breakout campaign: career bests in batting average (.276), RBI (57) and home runs (10).
Manager Tony Vitello pointed to Lee’s offseason strength training as a big reason the smaller outfielder was able to stay on the field.
“I thought he had a great season for us, and he essentially played the whole year for the most part,” Vitello said.
Lee, though, saw the season through a more conflicted lens. He described it as up-and-down and said the changing lineup around him made it hard to avoid a sense that more could have been done.
“It was like a roller coaster season in some kind of way, and when the baseball (season) ends, there’s always a little bit of regret, I think there’s a feeling where I could’ve done better,” Lee said.
He also sees reason for optimism in the younger players who got a taste of the majors this year. Lee said that experience should pay off not just for the big league club, but for the organization’s depth moving forward, with players like Jonah Cox now understanding what it takes at this level.
“I feel like the young guns who are up here and experienced what major league baseball is like, I feel like that leads into a good farm (team) inside the organization and just being ready for next year,” Lee said.
Vitello was asked about Lee’s season and the constant turnover in the outfield, and he reached for a familiar line from former Coastal Carolina football coach David Bennett about wanting “dogs” rather than “cats.”
“When you’re in the locker room, you want to be next to a guy where you think ‘This guy’s a dog,’ ” Vitello said. “I think a good number of outfielders are guys you go into battle saying that about them.”
The Giants’ starting outfield on Saturday was Scott Bandura, Turner Hill and Bo Davidson.
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