Lee Bum-ho to start training with Phillies next month

Former Korean baseball league slugger Lee Bum-ho will start coaching training with the Philadelphia Phillies next month, his former club here said Monday.

The Kia Tigers of the KBO said Lee will spend the 2020 season with the Phillies’ minor league system from Feb. 11 until October, covering the start of spring training and the end of the regular season and beyond.

According to the Tigers, Lee will depart for Florida on Jan. 30, first to work with the Tigers players and then to join the Phillies’ camp about two weeks later and train with their rookie league players.

Lee retired in July last year after 20 professional seasons - 19 in the KBO and one in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). He hit 329 career home runs in the KBO, good for sixth all time, and had 1,127 RBIs to rank ninth in league history.

He spent September and October last year undergoing similar coaching training with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, his former NPB club.

Yonhap