Twins win bidding rights to Korean slugger Byung-ho Park

In something of a surprise move today, the Minnesota Twins won the bid for negotiation rights for Korean slugging first baseman Byung-ho Park. If the Twins are able to sign Park, they will owe the Nexen Heroes $12,850,000 posting fee in addition to whatever they pay Park. If the Twins aren't able to sign him, he'll return to Nexen and no posting fee will be exchanged.

Park led the Korean Baseball Organization with 53 homers this year, hitting .343/.436/.714 with 78 walks and 161 strikeouts in 622 plate appearances. He finished second in the league in OPS behind former major league outfielder Eric Thames.

Park is a 29-year-old right-handed hitting first baseman born July 10, 1986. He has been one of the top power hitters in the KBO for the last four seasons, hitting 31 homers in 2012, 37 in 2013, and 52 in 2014 in addition to his 53 bombs this past season.

Although the KBO is a heavy-offense league, scouting reports say that Park's power is genuine. He's not likely to hit 50 homers in the majors of course but he can plausibly hit 20 or 25.

The main question: how will his batting average and on-base percentage translate in light of his swing/miss tendencies?

Assuming that they can sign Park the Twins will have some decisions to make roster-wise, given Joe Mauer at first base and the presence of Miguel Sano. There is talk that Sano will transition to the outfield (he will try this in winter ball), leaving Trevor Plouffe at third base with Mauer and Park splitting first base and DH duties. It will be interesting to see what happens if the Sano-in-the-outfield experiment fails, but having too many bats is always better than not having enough.