The Samsung Lions of the KBO League are closing in on a deal with outfielder Daniel Palka, according to DKTV’s Daniel Kim (Twitter link). The White Sox still control Palka’s rights, though since he was outrighted off their 40-man roster last November and wasn’t included on the team’s 60-man player pool this month, Palka doesn’t appear to be in Chicago’s future plans.
Palka burst into the majors in 2018 and finished fifth in AL Rookie Of The Year balloting on the strength of his 27 homers in 449 plate appearances, though his overall batting line (.240/.294/.484) didn’t hint at much beyond raw power. A brutal start to the 2019 season led to a pretty quick demotion to the minors for Palka, and he didn’t receive much more extended playing time until September, finishing with an ugly .372 OPS over 93 PA for the season.
There’s a lot of swing-and-miss in Palka’s game, as he struck out 188 times over his 542 Major League plate appearances, though he has shown considerable more promise at the plate during his minor league career. Over 2287 PA in the farm systems of the Diamondbacks, Twins, and White Sox, Palka hit .269/.349/.500 with 136 homers. A move to South Korea and the hitter-friendly KBO League could be just what Palka needs to get his career back on track and perhaps improve his stock for a future contract with a North American club.
Palka would be taking the roster spot left open by another former big leaguer in Tyler Saladino, who is out of action with a back injury. Kim notes that Saladino has been sidelined since July 14, and the fact that the Lions are already lining up a replacement would seem to indicate that the injury could be serious. Performance-wise, Saladino has an impressive .280/.411/.477 slash line through 163 PA in his first KBO season.
Saladino signed with the Lions last winter, coming on the heels of 326 MLB games with the White Sox and Brewers from 2015-19. By coincidence, Saladino and Palka were both members of the 2018 White Sox, though Saladino was already off to Milwaukee before Palka made his big league debut.
It’s amazing how a player can be getting AL ROTY votes one year and then barely even be caller up the next. Baseball is a very volatile sport.
It sounds great finishing 5th, but the dude got a single vote.
Yeah and while he did smack 27 homers… he also only hit .240. so it’s not as though he really was all that impressive for Chicago. Though I’ll agree with the original comment… that you would think he’d have gotten at least a little bit more of an opportunity in 2019 to try and build on the success he had in 18… especially seeing as he hit so well in AAA when he was sent back down. (Ironically hitting another 27 HRs – exactly)
In the Sox defense, Palka went 1 for 35 in 13 games before being sent down. Pretty easy to justify sending him down.
In fact he went 1 for 55 before collecting his 2nd hit of ’19. There’s no stat out there that you can manipulate where 1 for 55 looks good (even worse when the one hit was only a single).
Good luck to Palka overseas.
And he had a 0.6 WAR in his rookie season, showing how valuable he was.
Haha good point!! I didn’t really look into that but that would explain why he was sent down!! Yeah there’s really no way around that being unjustifiably bad!
It is amazing how careers get off track. Greatexamples are Johnny Callison, Steve Blass and Tom Tresh.
Callison remained a pretty solid hitter the rest of his career after his 1st half dozen amazing seasons. Blass couldn’t find home plate all of a sudden. Pirates fans used to get reminded of this when he was broadcasting for them and sometimes mention this during them still a few years back.
I’d also mention Rico petrocelli if want to go with guys who had 2-3 good years, then the floor crashed and became terrible hitters, like Tresh. It happens. Some guys just get “old” baseball wise early and eek out a few more years somehow..
I don’t really think I’d include Petrocelli in the same argument… I mean yeah he had a huge season in 1969 and did somewhat keep that power surge through 71 but he had had several mediocre seasons before 1969 and then several after… he was more of a situation where he more or less had 10+ seasons of mediocre offense and just so happened to have 2/3 really good years in the middle. And at the time for a middle infielder his other seasons were actually relatively in line with league average (or even slightly better)
Actually going by WAR he was above average from 65 to 74… he just also happened to have that 10.0 WAR season as an outlier in 69!
I would be shocked if his name doesn’t show up on the KBO homerun leaderboard.
I think Palka has the makings of someone who’s going to be a “star” in the KBO. He has pretty impressive power and decent plate discipline (at least in the minors) — and given that it’s such a hitter friendly league… I really wouldnt be surprised to see him put up some really impressive numbers over there. Who knows he could wind up parlaying his stint in Korea to another shot in the majors too… possibly even similar to Eric Thames when he came back putting up really impressive power numbers in the MLB again too… he has a similar profile of so-so batting averages, great power and good OBP skills. Best of luck to him.
He never had the makings of a varsity athlete.
Daniel in the Lions’ den. He should survive at least.
He’ll certainly be safer in Korea.
Palka should do alright in the KBO as long as he shows plate discipline like he did in AAA before last year. He’ll likely cut down on his strikeouts in the KBO as well.
I agree and if he starts smashing the ball again PalkaMania will hit Korea good
What a coincidence I just pulled his autograph in a box of baseball cards!
PalkaMania heading to Korea!
Last year at triple A he posted a 900 OPS and 27 homers. Hitting coach Frank Menechino is now with White Sox. Would not be surprised to see him do well this year and get back to MLB in ‘21 I wish him well