This story was excerpted from Maria Guardado's Giants Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
The Giants have the Bay Area to themselves now that the A’s have left Oakland, but that hasn’t stopped them from trying to tap into new baseball markets.
Given the international nature of the sport, the Giants see a wealth of opportunities available abroad, particularly in South Korea, the home of center fielder Jung Hoo Lee.
In an effort to build stronger ties to Asia, the Giants decided to kick off 2026 by embarking on a goodwill tour of Lee’s native country. Seventeen members of the organization -- including president of baseball operations Buster Posey, general manager Zack Minasian, new manager Tony Vitello, shortstop Willy Adames, president and CEO Larry Baer and chief marketing officer Rachel Heit -- flew to South Korea this week to visit Lee and begin elevating the Giants’ brand on a global scale.
“The San Francisco Giants are a proud organization, where the passion for baseball runs deep to our roots,” Posey told reporters during a joint press conference on Wednesday. “As somebody who’s loved baseball from the time I can remember, it’s certainly special to be here in Korea and share that passion with a country. It’s very evident just how much this sport means to the country of Korea.”
There’s been plenty of cross-cultural exchange thus far, with Lee taking the Giants’ contingent out for Korean BBQ and accompanying Vitello and Adames on a tour through Namdaemun Market in Seoul. Posey and Minasian also drank tea during a 45-minute meeting with KBO commissioner Heo Koo-Youn on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the Giants ran a baseball clinic at LG Champion’s Park in Icheon for 30 local high school players, including students from Lee's alma mater, Whimoon High School. Lee and one of Vitello’s new coaches, Shane Robinson, oversaw outfield drills, while Adames and former Giant Jae-Gyun Hwang coached players on the infield.
“For me, personally, it’s an honor to be here in Jung Hoo’s country,” Adames told reporters. “It’s an amazing and beautiful country. I just wanted to come here and give Jung Hoo some support and show him that we really, really care about him. Just for him to understand that we’re really taking him in as part of the core of the team. I think us being here shows the love we have for him.”
The trip has also been instructive for Vitello, who has gone out of his way to meet with players since he was hired to replace Bob Melvin as the Giants’ manager in October. Vitello traveled to the Dominican Republic to spend time with Adames and Rafael Devers in December before circling the globe once again to connect with Lee this year.
“The No. 1 reason for me to be here is to get to know Jung Hoo Lee, just like [visiting] Willy [in the Dominican],” Vitello told reporters. “It’s my first year, so I’m still getting to know the players. I feel to truly know somebody, you have to know where they’re from, how they grew up, what type of family they have and really how they’ve led their life up until becoming a teammate of yours. It’s been special to me to start that relationship. But again it’s just getting started with Willy and with Jung Hoo and the other players, so I’m looking forward to the days to come.”
Vitello said Lee has greeted him warmly so far -- in more ways than one.
“No matter how he plays on the field, I know he’s a great teammate because I didn’t have a warm enough coat here and he loaned me his,” Vitello said.
The Giants are hoping they'll have a chance to return to South Korea and continue to grow their presence in the near future. The Dodgers and Padres played a two-game series at the Gocheok Sky Dome in 2024, so the Giants hope they’ll be selected to participate in MLB’s next Seoul Series, especially now that Lee has emerged as their most marketable player.
“We have found that the interest in the Giants is very strong here among Korean-based companies,” Baer told reporters. “We see that this will be a big part of our future. When you watch games from Oracle Park, I think you can be ready to see signs for companies that will be very familiar to you that are based here in Korea.”