What to Expect from Hao-Yu Lee

Hao-Yu Lee is Headed to the Detroit Tigers

Detroit Tigers infield prospect Hao-Yu Lee is headed to the show. An injury to super utility man Zach McKinstry, and a schedule loaded with left-handed pitching, made it the right time for Lee to debut. The information first leaked to a Taiwanese website, but a few hours later the Tigers confirmed it themselves.

The Tigers today placed infielder Zach McKinstry on the 10-day injured list (retroactive to April 16) with left hip/abdominal inflammation. Infielder Hao-Yu Lee has been recalled from Triple-A Toledo.

Lee, who will wear uniform number 50, joins the first major league roster of…

— Tigers PR (@DetroitTigersPR) April 17, 2026

And Manager A.J. Hinch inserted Lee right into the starting lineup against the Red Sox and left-handed starter Ranger Suarez on Friday night. He is batting 8th and playing 3rd base.

Let’s take a quick look at what our 7th ranked Detroit Tigers prospect might provide the team over the next few weeks.

Hao-Yu Lee’s Background

A native of New Taipei, Taiwan, Lee was a gifted baseball player from a young age. He was so good he got to travel around the world to compete in tournaments, including the 2017 Junior League Baseball World Series in Taylor, Michigan. Lee was the star of that tournament, and while he was in town he also attended a Tigers game at Comerica Park.

The Philadelphia Phillies scouted Lee heavily, and signed him for $570,000 as part of their 2021 international class. Lee got off to a fast start in pro ball, hitting .364 with a home run, two triples, and two doubles in just nine games with the Florida Complex League Phillies. He moved up to Low-A Clearwater in 2022, and produced a strong .283/.384/.415 batting line. He missed six weeks in the middle of the year with a broken hand, but it didn’t seem to slow him down. Lee was rewarded with a promotion to High- A Jersey Shore for the final nine games of the year.

Lee returned to Jersey Shore for his age-20 season and once again batted .283 with solid extra-base power, patience, and speed. At the trade deadline the Phillies moved him to the Tigers straight up for starter Michael Lorenzen. Lorenzen threw a no-hitter in his second start with Philly, but he struggled the rest of the way and was moved to the bullpen. Lee managed just eight games with High-A West Michigan before a calf injury ended his season. But he did come back and play well in the Arizona Fall League.

Assigned to Double-A Erie to begin 2024, Lee had a break-out year. He hit .298/.363/.488 with 36 extra-base hits (12 home runs) and 16 steals in 17 tries. He went bonkers in June, batting .385 with five homers, two triples, five doubles, and eight steals in just 19 games.

Hao-yu Lee AGAIN. He hits a 3-run blast to center to put Erie up 3-0 in the first. Give him 9 home runs on the year and a 10-game hitting streak. @Greg_Gania has the call. pic.twitter.com/tCBPerFnxp

— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) June 5, 2024

Unfortunately, injuries struck again. Opposing pitchers hit Lee in the head twice in the span of eight days, and his production cooled off considerably.

Lee was the talk of early spring training in 2025, but his on-field performance didn’t quite match they hype. He looked jumpy and much more aggressive than he had in 2024, and the result was a 4-for-28 performance with 12 strikeouts. The Tigers sent Lee to Toledo, and his cold start continued. He did have a strong May, posting a .910 OPS over 24 games, but his production was just average for the rest of the season. He finished the year batting .243/.342/.406 with 14 home runs and 22 steals in a career-high 126 games.

The Tigers added Lee to their 40-man roster in November. He was poised to participate in the 2026 World Baseball Classic until another injury forced him out of the tournament. We saw him rehabbing on the back fields in late March, and he didn’t make his Toledo debut until April 7th. He hit his first home run of the year on April 15th, two days before his MLB debut.

Hao-Yu Lee Scouting Report

As always, we encourage you to read our full scouting report on Lee, but here’s a quick overview.

Hao-Yu Lee is a sum-of-his-parts kind of prospect. He does everything fairly well, though nothing spectacularly. Short and burly, Lee is deceptively athletic, with plus raw power and shockingly fast sprint times. Lee works professional at-bats and doesn’t chase or swing-and-miss excessively.

He’s aggressive in the zone and he swings with the intent to do damage. His best defensive position is second base, where he has above-average range and shows good hands, and he has the arm strength to handle third base. Lee is also an intense, fiery competitor, who seems like a good bet to charge the mound at least once in his career.

The Trouble With Hao-Yu Lee

Lee doesn’t have any massive holes in his game, but his in-game results don’t always match up to his impressive tools. Much of Lee’s success in Double-A was due to him pulling the ball (44%) in the air. But he opened early, with a bit of a bucket stride, and the Tigers were worried he would be exploited on the outer third of the plate. Lee addressed his pull tendencies in 2025, but he may have gone too far. His pull rate dropped to 36% with Toledo, and his opposite-field rate jumped from 27% to 39%.

Lee is strong enough to still hit the ball very hard to right field – his first homer of 2026 was an oppo shot – but it does neuter his power production somewhat. Lee generally handles velocity, and he crushes sinkers, but he often swings through good sliders. Right-handed pitchers exploited this and held him to a .702 OPS in 2025.

The one other concern with Hao-Yu Lee is his defense. Throughout his career he has looked like an above-average second baseman, but things get iffy when he heads to the hot corner. The game just seems to speed up on him at third base, leading to bobbles and deflections off his glove. And while he has the raw arm strength to make throws from third, it often looks like he is putting his entire body into the throw, which affects his accuracy and causes the ball to sail at times.

The Verdict

It’s always exciting when young prospects debut, and Hao-Yu Lee has the talent to be an MLB regular some day. But Lee is still young, and, at least early in his MLB career, he figures to be a complementary player. He has done a lot of damage against left-handed pitching in his pro career – .919 OPS in 2025, .968 in 2024 – and that should be his main role in the majors.

Lee may find it hard to beat out the other infielders on Detroit’s roster. He’s athletic enough to perhaps add outfield to his defensive resume, but that doesn’t appear to be happening any time soon. We expect him to provide some help this year, but it wouldn’t be a shock if his ultimate value to the Tigers is as a trade piece at this year’s deadline.