이정후 李政厚
Baseball player who won KBO Rookie of the Year and MVP before moving to Major League Baseball; son of Yi Jong-beom
| Life | 1998 |
| Era | 현대 |
| Clan | 함평 이씨 |
Life & career
Yi Jeong-hu (born 1998) is a Korean baseball player and the son of Yi Jong-beom. Born on 20 August 1998 in Nagoya, Aichi, where his father was playing, he grew up in Gwangju after his father returned to Korea in 2001. Known as the Grandson of the Wind after his father's nickname Son of the Wind, he is introduced as a descendant of the Giseong-gun branch of the Hampyeong Yi.
A graduate of Whimoon High School, he was picked first by the Nexen (later Kiwoom) Heroes ahead of the 2017 draft. He won the KBO Rookie of the Year that year, the Golden Glove for five consecutive years from 2018 to 2022, and the KBO MVP in 2022.
Internationally he won gold at the 2018 Asian Games and played in the Tokyo Olympics and the 2023 World Baseball Classic, and in 2024 moved to the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball.
Years with Kiwoom
Yi Jeong-hu won Rookie of the Year in 2017 and the Golden Glove in five straight years from 2018 to 2022, and the KBO MVP in 2022. Because his father Yi Jong-beom was an MVP in the 1990s, they are described as the first father-son MVPs in KBO history.
International Play and the Majors
He won gold at the 2018 Asian Games and played in the 2020 Summer Olympics and the 2023 World Baseball Classic. From 2024 he is introduced as playing outfield for the San Francisco Giants.