SF Giants may come to regret Jung Hoo Lee trade deadline decision

The SF Giants traded six players at the trade deadline, but some fans feel they didn’t go far enough. Those who wanted a full-scale teardown would’ve liked to see Logan Webb and Jung Hoo Lee dealt too, but they remain with San Francisco.

Webb is the team’s ace and he at least gives the team some sense of rotation stability going forward so keeping him makes sense, but there was a stronger case to make in favor of trading Lee.

While Lee is a fan-favorite, he didn’t have the best month of August. He hit .245/.312/.367 for the month with three home runs and nine runs batted in. He also stole six bases on the month.

It wasn’t an awful month by any stretch, but it brought his numbers on the year down to .288/.331/.419 with nine homers, 49 runs batted in, 12 stolen bases, and 50 strikeouts compared to 25 walks.

That’s a solid year and is a nice improvement from his numbers in 2025, but the Giants have to be asking themselves whether they should have sold high on Lee after he went on a tear earlier in the summer and had his batting average well over .300.

Not only that, but he’s 28 years old and is set to make a little north of $23 million next season. Is that too much money to pay for a guy who is a solid player, but not necessarily a game changer?

Lee is not exactly the guy the Giants thought he would be when they gave him that six-year, $113 million deal. The thinking at the time was that he’d be the team’s everyday center fielder and leadoff guy, but now he’s their right fielder because his defense in center was subpar and he bats No. 5 in the lineup even though most of the lineup is unrecognizable from the start of the year.

Giants were not prepared to trade a popular player like Jung Hoo Lee

Still, fans love him and it’s clear he’s one of the team’s most marketable players. He is also a key part of the team’s strategy to grow its reach in South Korea.

All of that went into San Francisco’s calculus to keep Lee and the fact that he has an opt-out in his contract after the 2027 season likely would have made any potential deal harder to get done.

The hope is that Lee will continue to improve at the plate going forward, but what if he was at his most valuable this season? The 2026 trade deadline could have been the best opportunity to trade him but now the Giants will go forward rolling the dice that he will continue to be productive.

San Francisco has some really interesting outfield prospects knocking on the door like Bo Davidson so maybe if they could go back in time they would have made a trade involving Lee but the Giants were clearly not ready to tear things down completely and Lee’s popularity played a big role in why he remains with San Francisco. We will see if keeping him ends up being the right decision, but if he declines going forward then it will look like a mistake. 

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