TODAY: Park says he does not “have any regrets” despite heading home with some “disappointment” after two years in affiliated ball, according to a report from Lee Hyeong-Seok and Kim Hyo-Kyung of Korea JoongAng Daily (h/t Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net). The article seemingly suggests that Park will walk away from the remainder of his guaranteed money from the Twins, preferring to give up some earnings in order to make it back to the KBO, though it’s also still possible that the interested parties are hammering out the financial details.
YESTERDAY, 10:28pm: The details of Park’s return (such as his walking away from the remainder of his MLB contract) haven’t yet been finalized between the Heroes, the KBO and the Twins, Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports. “It will be a while before it is all worked out,” a source with knowledge of the situation tells Berardino, though the Twins are expected to ultimately release Park.
10:02pm: Park will forfeit the remaining $6.5MM on his Twins contract in order to facilitate the move to KBO, as per a Naver Sports report (hat tip to Sung Min Kim of the River Ave Blues blog).
8:57pm: The Nexen Heroes of the KBO League have signed first baseman Byung-Ho Park to a one-year deal, Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News reports (Twitter links). Park will earn $1.4MM (or 1.5 billion South Korean won) in the contract.
According to Yoo, the Twins accommodated Park’s request to release him from the remaining two years on his original four-year, $12MM contract with the club in order for Park to return to his home country. Unless some type of arrangement was worked out between the Twins and the Heroes, Minnesota is on the hook for all of the remaining $6.5MM on Park’s MLB contract — $3MM in each of the 2018 and 2019 seasons, plus a $500K buyout of a $6.5MM club option for 2020.
The transaction officially ends a disappointing tenure for Park in Major League Baseball. The Twins paid $12.85MM to win negotiating rights with Park in December 2015 and then guaranteed him another $12MM with that four-year deal. The result was a .191/.275/.409 slash line with 12 homers over 244 plate appearances in 2016, as Park had trouble making contact (80 strikeouts) and also battled a wrist injury that eventually required surgery. Minnesota outrighted him off their 40-man roster last February and Park never again reached the bigs, hitting .253/.308/.415 over 455 PA at the Triple-A level last season.
Park was reportedly still in the Twins’ plans for 2018, as he was even preparing to spend much of the offseason training at the team’s facilities. Still, Park was signed before the Derek Falvey/Thad Levine regime took over in Minnesota, so it could be that the new front office just wanted to part ways with a player that no longer seemed to fit on the 25-man roster. Joe Mauer is still entrenched at first base, and while the DH slot is currently slated to be filled by the uninspiring duo of Robbie Grossman and Kennys Vargas, the Twins are interested in Shohei Ohtani and are surely open to using the two-way star as a designated hitter when he isn’t on the mound. Even if Ohtani can’t be signed, Miguel Sano may also be a candidate for more DH time as the slugger recovers from leg surgery.
Park now returns to the KBO League, where he posted superstar numbers over parts of nine seasons from 2005-15 (including four-plus years with Nexen Heroes). Park hit .281/.387/.564 with 210 homers over 3271 PA in South Korea, an impressive enough showing to catch the eye of the Twins and other teams in the 2015-16 offseason when Park expressed interest in coming to North America.
So are the twins off the hook?
Likely. Nishioka did the same thing when he went back to his Japanese team. Forfeited the money.
@twins33….at worst I could see the Twins agreeing to pay of MAYBE 20% or an agreed upon small amount to facilitate this release and to move on from a player who obviously could not help them…..I think it will be either a small amount or zero to Park, possibly determined by how good an agent/lawyer that he had…..
Post has been updated to show he’s forfeiting the 6.5M left.
yeah twitter.com/sung_minkim/status/934979393952165888
I am 100% confident that the Twins will pay almost nothing to this guy since he leaving to go back to Korea.,…..normally, in contract law when both parties agree to dissolve the contract, or arrangement, the contract is nullified…..
The only mitigating factor is the MLB CBA and the players association……and since the Twins surely talked to Park to achieve this release, I do not feel the Twins would have agreed if they still had to pay him the full amount….
I think that this article simply does not have the full details of this transaction and we will almost certainly learn within a day or two that Minnesota paid no more than, say 20% of the money left on the Park contract….
Well. That didn’t work out.
Holy inflation
Good riddance.
oh well at least he can bat flip again
Yeah ohtani will definitely sign with a team that ruined two Asian players that were stars in their countries before heading to Minneapolis.
Agreed, I don’t think Nishioka or Park realized how bitter cold it is in the Twin Cities, especially during the first month of the season. They’re contractually obligated to come to TwinsFest as well, in January of all months, where it’s even colder. For some, especially people from other countries, they can never fully adjust or acclimate to the weather.
It’s bitter cold in the winter months. Minnesota definitely gets a lot warmer during the summer then you think it does. Cold months Demember-February should not affect these players. You think if they went to LA or Miami that they’d be stars? Nishioka was just awful and Park showed potential but couldn’t put it all together and stay healthy. The cold climate may be a little more undesirable, but it doesn’t even play a part in how they failed.
Are you really suggesting that Park and Nishioka didn’t succeed because Minnesota has cold winters?
Nishioka would likely have been a capable player had the slide rules been implemented before he came over. I recall a bottom-third hitter who played very well at second base…until he broke his leg. Then it all went downhill from there.
You do know they have cold weather
and snow in Japan too right?
OHTAI will be in the minors for atleast a year if not two
absolutely not true
He’s not coming to MLB to play MiLB
Wtf are you talking about bucnole
@bucnote….there is plenty of baseball reasons that Ohtani will surely be in MLB and not Milb, but really all you have to do is to think about the ticket sales, international marketing and television rating reasons that he will be in MLB until he proves he can not remain there….
lol they didn’t ruin them they just weren’t any good especially nishioka
Niskioka was the MVP in Japan the year before he came over. He was literally the best player in Japan signing with the twins, and was expected to come close to repeating if he stayed there.
@Pablo…..being the best player in Japan is great but Japan is still quite a ways from MLB quality…..the best Japanese pitchers have done ok in America, but the position players from Japan and Asia have mostly underwhelmed….For every Ichiro, there has been 2 or 3 Asian positon players busts….
So one career year equals star player? Look at his stats before that year and look at his stats after. He is not good.
I remember all the Japanese media making a big deal about him and his wife after he signed here. Trying to pump them up like they were the Brad and Angelina of Japan. It’s crazy considering the stats he posted before that one year. He was a slap hitter, which is fine if you’re actually good at it. He was also not good defensively. It was a terrible signing and terrible scouting.
I’m not trying to look at how good he was. He was clearly crappy. My argument was two Asian players bombed after coming to the twins. Also you can’t say they were terrible when they were the top players coming over from their perspective leagues. You’re point is moot.
I don’t think Nishioka is good and clearly park didn’t work out. If you were coming from an Asian country from overseas, and the last two big ticket Asian players who signed with the team gave up millions to go home… why would that be a place you wanna go?
Huh? Nishioka was never an MVP in NPB. He had a couple very good years, but he was never really a one of the best players in the league.
@Pablo…The Twins have had a rather disastrous history with Asian players, yes. I remeber them paying a Japanese shortstop, Kei Igawa maybe I am not sure, around 12 million just to play mostly minor league baseball and then go away……
There really is no guarantee, however that any of these Asian players was ever any good and the problems the Twins have could be in talent assessment, not player development…….Just another man’s opinion……
Kei Igawa was a pitcher and he signed with the Yankees.
@sky….you got me on that one because I am going off of memory and do not use google when discussing baseball……I just remember a 2b/ss type that the twins signed a few yrs ago that completely flamed out….
I remember how excited people were in Minneapolis for this Park, but it was disappointing to find out it was just threw swings and a bench
Three*
Boo
So, riddle me this…..who in their right mind just plain gives up 6.5M to make 1.4M? Makes absolutely no sense to me. What am I missing?
He doesn’t suck over there
@stollcm……Asian and Japanese players have done this before when they were not succeeding in American MLB……
I remember years ago the Seattle Mariners catcher Ken Jojima left SEVERAL MILLION dollars on the table, to return home to Japan after at least two Seattle pitchers blamed his poor receiving skills for their lack of pitching success
Japanese culture is particularly prideful. Your goal is to be a star in MLB or at least good and instead you end up being bad and in the minors. Why stay in a foreign country where you are likely unhappy and disappointed?
Yeah, it sucks to give up money, but for some people there are more important things than money.
Sorry, I’ve been talking about Japan so much in this post. I know Park is Korean. Same deal, very prideful.
Nishioka gave up money too when he forfeited his contract.
I get all that and I believe there is more to life than money,but I don’t believe the players union does lol. Then again if he was in the minors does the union even come into play? Was he on the 40 man? Maybe it does then? I don’t know just speculating.
I can’t imagine there isn’t more to this in the form of a settlement or something.
The Union, and the CBA DOES come into play but,
in previous cases of international players wanting to return home, I have seen the MLB players association acquiesce in letting players leave money on the table to return home, but I have never seen them do this for a domestic, American player….
It would be hard for an American player to give up money and return home to play in America
You know, once you’re rich you can pick happiness over money. Maybe the dudes life won’t be much different with the additional money, but it will be significantly different when he lays in bed after a 4 for 5 game with a bomb and a couple of doubles.
Park is very popular in Korea and will likely earn far more than the 6.5M through sponsorships, commercials, tv appearances, etc. Despite earning a higher baseball salary here in the US, he likely made less overall money than if he had stayed in Korea.
Hopefully he’s happier there…if I was a millionaire I wouldn’t want to play minor league baseball.
I wouldn’t want to live anywhere near the ticking time bomb that is the Korean Peninsula
That time bomb won’t only affect the Korean peninsula…FYI.
Never made sense why the Twins signed this guy in the first place, all the signing did was displace Sano to RF for a year. Park will not be missed.
There were too many 1B/3B/DH options on the roster BEFORE they signed Park.
The Twins are in love with 1b/DH types, ……they seemingly think that you can never have enough of them…..
It would be better if more than the occasional 1B/DH type was any good
yep, that always helps…..