After the World Series, the off-season had officially begun. One of the first things to come out to start off the off-season was the news that Korean slugger Byung-ho Park wanted to play in the Major Leagues after playing over ten years in Korea. Every major league baseball team had a chance to put in a blind bid for Park so that they could negotiate a contract with him. After the bidding had finished up and their was an undisclosed winner with a bid of $12.85 million, things began to get interesting. Nobody knew who exactly that specific team was until Monday.
According to Yahoo Sports, the Minnesota Twins are the team with the winning bid. The Twins have thirty days to negotiate a contract with Park; if an agreement is not reached he will stay in Korea and the Twins won’t have to pay the $12.85 million. The Nexen Heroes have accepted the bid for Park.
Some numbers that stand out from Park’s last season are his fifty-three home runs and 146 RBIs in 140 games. The Twins are trying to move their current designated hitter, Miguel Sano, to left field, and Park can see some time at first while Joe Mauer would get the day off. He could possibly get most of his playing time a DH. Park has hit over .300 for the last three seasons and had fifty-two homers in 2014 while playing 128 games. The 162-game MLB season could boost his numbers even more if he does play in every game.
The Twins have not confirmed this report yet.
The bid that the Twins put in at $12.85 million is the second highest for a Asian position player behind Ichiro Suzuki, who received a $13 million bid.
The Rangers, Athletics, Padres, Indians, Orioles, Cardinals, Pirates, and Rockies were all reportedly in the mix for Park.
