Lee’s season was cut short by injury but he had a monster first half and continues to be a little underrated.
We’ve already covered Scott Harris’ best trade deadline acquisition with the Tigers with our fourth ranked prospect, catcher Thayron Liranzo. Infielder Hao-Yu Lee isn’t too far behind. After a strong second half in 2023 after coming over from the Phillies in the Michael Lorenzen trade with the Phillies, Lee backed it up with an excellent season at the Double-A level last summer. He’s now on track to tackle Triple-A, and if things go well he could be a factor for the Tigers this year.
Dave Dombrowski and the Phillies signed Lee out of Taipei, Taiwan back in June of 2021 for $500,000. He was a notable prep hitter who played on the Taiwanese national team that won the Junior League World Series in 2017. Incidentally, that series was played in Taylor, Michigan, so Lee was somewhat familiar with the Detroit area already. And he’s thrived since joining the Tigers’ organization.
Right now, we’d argue Lee is a little underrated in prospect land. For over three months in 2024, the right-handed hitter tore older competition to shreds at the Double-A level. Unfortunately, his season was derailed in July when he was twice drilled in the head by pitches. His power production cooled, and a bout with lumbar spine inflammation ended his season in early August before he could get back in a groove.
The word on Lee when he arrived in the Lorenzen trade was that he was a good pure hitting prospect who used the whole field and sprayed line drives from line to line. Concerns were mainly about his struggles with better fastballs, and a need to develop more power production.
For a second baseman without standout defensive tools or speed, turning his above average raw power into more in-game power production was required. The Tigers emphasized the need to pull more balls in the air, and in 2024 Lee responded with a change in his approach to hunt and pull more pitches in the air. Despite his youth for the Double-A level, Lee was already able to make good on that adjustment to a degree. It paid off in terms of power, and he was able to get to that power without diminishing his ability to put the ball in play with consistent authority.
Lee launched 12 home runs in 87 games, and he hit .298 while striking out just 17.9 percent of the time. He also continued to show pretty good zone discipline despite his aggressive hitting style, walking 8.5 percent of the time. This wasn’t the result of some major swing change, or getting crazy with trying to lift everything. In fact, he didn’t hit anymore fly balls in 2024 than he did in 2023. What he did do was pull more of them while also cutting down on his pop-ups. His pull percentage went from 32.3 percent to 43.7 percent in 2024, while his infield fly ball rate dropped from 19.3 percent of his fly balls down to just 10.1 percent. That’s exactly what the Tigers want to see.
The adjustments didn’t click immediately in April, but he then hit five homers with an .833 OPS in May, and five more homers with a 1.130 OPS in June. By that point he was really on fire and with little else to fear in the Erie SeaWolves lineup, pitchers became a lot more careful with him. He continued to hit despite getting drilled in the head twice in only a few weeks span, but the power production did cool way off until the back issue ended his season. Lumbar spine inflammation, following some hamstring injuries earlier in his career, may auger for a little more work in the strength and flexibility department.
Apart from the health concerns, this was a highly positive campaign for Hao-Yu Lee, and there is a lot to like going forward. Lee is a really pesky at-bat, battling like mad with two strikes. He plays the game with a lot of intensity, and has already developed a reputation as a team leader despite his limited English. His competitiveness and overall style of play endeared him to teammates and coaches alike. Now, he just needs to continue progress with the adjustments he’s made. It’s for the best that he’ll be with Gabe Alvarez again as he moves up to manage the Toledo Mud Hens in 2025.
If there remains a flaw in his game it’s still some vulnerability to better velocity. The Tigers have done pretty good work helping hitters like Parker Meadows and Wenceel Perez improve their batspeed, and Lee could probably use some improvement in that regard. He made a lot of progress in that regard this year, but more is required to avoid having to simply foul off tougher heaters until he gets something he can handle effectively. He is good at spoiling tough pitches however, moderating the issue.
Defensively, Lee does need to continue working on his lateral quickness to become a better second baseman. His days dabbling at shortstop ended in 2023. He’s pretty solid already, with good hands and a strong, accurate arm for the position, but his first step and range could improve. That arm isn’t quite enough to forecast success if the Tigers move him to third base, but he wasn’t overmatched there either. We’ll have to see if those nine games were just an experiment, and whether the Tigers might consider playing him there more as he moves to Triple-A in 2025. Doing so might open more paths to major league playing time.
2025 Outlook
Because his season ended the way it did, sending Lee back to Double-A to start the year does make sense. He’s still pretty young for his competition level, and could use some time to get back into the swing of things before tackling Triple-A. Still, it shouldn’t be long before the Tigers promote him. At that point, Lee’s major league debut is mostly up to him. If he can adapt to more experienced pitchers feeding him more breaking and particularly good offspeed stuff in the International League, he’s going to move relatively quickly.
Hao-Yu Lee looks like another excellent trade for Scott Harris and his staff. His development curve since coming to the Tigers has been rapid. The profile is fairly bat dependent, but he looks very capable of making good on the promise of his offensive production. If he can put a little more work into his overall athleticism, it would really help open up some options for major league playing time, perhaps as soon as August or September. He’s not slow, stealing 16 bases in 2024, and while that’s more about smart, heads up baserunning than high end speed, there are plenty of dimensions to his game compared to Jace Jung, for example.
The Tigers did really, really well here for two months of Michael Lorenzen. He’s our eighth ranked Tigers’ prospect, but I still have him as a borderline top 100 prospect in the game. Lee has the skills and the makeup to turn into a good major league hitter with 20 HR pop who can move around the infield a bit even if second base is ultimately his best position. We’re pretty excited to see him make the next leap this season.