It was a bit of a surprise to learn that the Twins emerged with the winning posting bid for Korean slugger Byung-Ho Park. Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN tweets that there were multiple other bids of $10MM or greater, suggesting that Minnesota did not go much beyond the rest of the market to secure the rights. GM Terry Ryan explained that the club’s “evaluators think [Park] can make the transition” to the big leagues, as John Shipley of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports. Minnesota sees the 29-year-old as a primary DH who is capable of filling in at first or even third. Ryan said that adding Park did not necessarily mean that third baseman Trevor Plouffe would need to be traded to keep exciting young power hitter Miguel Sano in the lineup. Explaining that the team is “adding, not subtracting,” Ryan said that it is “serious about the possibility of Sano playing in the outfield.”
Here’s more from the Twin Cities and their AL Central rivals in Detroit:
- Righty Joakim Soria has drawn early interest not only from the Tigers, but also from the Twins, according to Wolfson (via Twitter). Minnesota has put out feelers on other relief arms as well, with the pen representing one priority along with the team’s catching situation.
- Tigers GM Al Avila left no doubt in his comments today that his club intends to play at the top of the relief market, as Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press reports. “We’re trying to get a closer,” Avila said. “Who that guy is right now, I can’t tell you. There might be a guy there that you might not think is a closer but we do, or we might go after a guy that’s already been a closer. I don’t know where it’s going to take me right now.”
- The new general manager did stress, though, that starting pitching remains the priority. He also added that Detroit could also shift those starters who don’t make the rotation into the pen, possibly including recent trade addition Michael Fulmer, as Jason Beck of MLB.com tweets.
- The Tigers are also continuing to make good on the promise to build out their analytical department, and have hired former Blue Jays assistant GM Jay Sartori to run that area, according to Jon Morosi of FOX Sports (via Twitter).
A $40m DH, when they have maybe 2 and a half good starting pitchers?
They’re in a rough spot with pitchers. There’s Duffey, Gibson, Hughes, May, Milone, Nolasco, Santana and Berrios. Some could go to the minors or BP…but either way, they’re pretty locked in. The only way out of the logjam is to trade.
Not sure a trade would even work, because there isn’t a ton of value there. Guessing Berrios is off limits, which he probably should be unless they’re getting something really good in return.
Not many reliable starting pitches are available for $40 million. That’s Nolasco/Garza territory. They will be just fine turning to internal options to improve the staff among May, Berrios, and Duffey to go along with Santana, Hughes and Gibson not to mention Milone and Meyer.
Yeah how if your the GM of twins was is not clear that pitching was and has always been the issue. They have plenty of hitting. I’ve never understood Minnesota sports logic. I live in Fargo and I’m from Texas and I’m always miffed at th decisions they make here concerning football and baseball.
They aren’t going to find much improvement to their starting staff on the free agent market, that will come internally. This deal doesn’t prevent them from pursuing other free agents, as mentioned in the first bullet point they are looking at bolstering their bullpen.
I don’t get the bid for the guy. But hey if they can hit their way into a title and marginal pitching knock yourself out terry Ryan
I do not get acquiring him from a positional stand point but lets not pretend signing Park is what will prevent the Twins from signing the likes of David Price.
I’d love to see the Braves trade for Plouffe.