Twins With Winning Bid On Korean Slugger

According to early reports from Pittsburgh Tribune's Travis Sawchick and KBO writer Daniel Kim that have since been confirmed by the Minnesota Twins, the team has won the rights to Park, a 28-year-old first baseman who has hit 52 and 53 home runs in each of the last two seasons, with a $12.85 million bid and will have a 30-day negotiating window to come to terms on a contract.

Park's addition presents a new mystery as to how the Twins will move forward constructing their roster for 2016. If Park and the team agree to terms, Park's role will likely be as a designated hitter with some time at first base. However, with Mauer at first and Trevor Plouffe at third (for the time being), manager Paul Molitor told reporters at the Torii Hunter retirement press conference that the organization would have Miguel Sano, a first base/designated hitter-type, familiarize himself with playing left field.

In his offseason interview, Twins general manager Terry Ryan told Twins Daily that he was interested in adding power. "I’ll take any kind of power," Ryan said. "Left or right-handed. It doesn’t matter. Somebody can hit the ball over the fence, you’re going to have interest. Power is hard to find, especially in this place."

Power is what Park provides.

Park has immense power potential, as demonstrated by his 52 and 53 home run seasons over the last two years in the KBO. While he can hit the ball a long way (reportedly hammering a pitch 522 feet this past September), he also has 303 strikeouts to his name since the beginning of 2014.

http://i.imgur.com/XUJiIIQ.gif

Will Park's power translate to the major leagues? Last winter the Pittsburgh Pirates added shortstop Jung-ho Kang to their roster. Kang, who had finished runner-up to Park's home run total, had a slow introduction to MLB pitching, hitting just 4 home runs in his first 72 games and 11 in his last 54.