First baseman/designated hitter Byung Ho Park has cleared waivers and been outrighted off the Twins’ 40-man roster, reports La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The team has since announced the move. Park will be in camp with the Twins as a non-roster invitee in Spring Training.
Park was somewhat surprisingly designated for assignment last week in order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster for right-hander Matt Belisle, who signed as a free agent. However, the guaranteed $9.25MM remaining on Park’s contract allowed him to pass through waivers unclaimed, and he’ll now remain with the Twins and vie for a job in camp or early this season after getting in some work with the Twins’ Triple-A affiliate in Rochester.
The 30-year-old Park was a superstar in the Korea Baseball Organization prior to being posted by the Nexen Heroes, and the Twins secured exclusive negotiation rights with him in December 2015 by submitting a blind bid of $12.85MM. Minnesota and Park’s representatives at Octagon worked out a four-year, $12MM contract that came with a fifth-year club option, and Park was penciled in as Minnesota’s primary DH heading into the 2016 campaign.
Park rallied after a slow first week and was hitting .257/.339/.578 with nine homers through his first 124 plate appearances. Strikeouts were a problem for Park from the get-go, however, and his production fell off the table before a June demotion to Triple-A. With Rochester, Park was eventually sidelined by a wrist injury that ultimately required surgical repair. The slugger wouldn’t blame his struggles in the Majors on the injury, though it’s certainly possible that Park’s ailing wrist/hand contributed to his .191/.275/.409 slash in the Majors.
Wow…thought someone might scoop him up.
Nah. He makes way too much money to post those type of numbers.
Like $3 million a year? He could definitely be worth a shot. There’s worse investments for more money every year.
It’s not $3 million, it’s $9 million. If you claim him you are on the hook for the whole three years of the contract, not just one year. While even $9 million isn’t much in baseball dollars, there are still lots of options out there that are on the same level as Park with only a 1 year commitment. That mitigates a lot of the risk, since you can cut bait and try another one the next season if he doesn’t turn it around.
I agree. If his wrist is headled and his attitude is right, who knows what he can do?
Good luck to him.
This is shocking. No one other than the Twins thought he’d get through waivers. Most thought he wouldn’t get past the White Sox or A’s. Not sure why no one was interested at 3/$9.25.
Who’s this “no one” of whom you speak? Many people thought he would easily make it through. No one’s looking for 1B/DH this year, as many better players found out. The few that were have now signed someone. There’s even a few players in that category out there still available on a minors deal. This should be surprising to absolutely no one.
Every single writer I’ve seen from Fangraphs is shocked he passed through waivers unclaimed. Not saying they know everything but they’re probably the smartest collection of baseball writers in the public sphere. I can think of 3-4 in particular who are dumbfounded by this.
fangraphs.com/blogs/the-twins-quit-on-byung-ho-par…
fangraphs.com/blogs/dont-quit-on-byung-ho-park/
There’s two examples of very smart writers who think Park has legit upside and easily worth 3/$9. His statcast numbers are elite.
I don’t think it’s shocking.. We wrote last week he’d probably clear… $9.25MM remaining over three years, plus injury concerns, little MLB success to date and a number of comparable players available by other means.
Many teams probably didn’t value Park at $9.25MM a year ago when he was a year younger and a free-agent wild card.
I’d support any team taking the low-cost flier, but players with substantial amounts remaining on multi-year deals are rarely claimed.
Agreed…he’s not near Chris Carter as a DH, who only got 1/$3k.
I get your point but $3 million AAV for 3 years is not a substantial commitment whatsoever. Park has more upside than guys like Chris Carter and Mike Napoli.
Why? He’s proven nothing and stunk last year.
fangraphs.com/blogs/dont-quit-on-byung-ho-park/
fangraphs.com/blogs/the-twins-quit-on-byung-ho-par…
Go read those articles. Park’s statcast numbers are elite.
How does Park have more upside? He and Carter are roughly the same age, are both extremely strike-out prone, and not many would project Park to ever hit 41 home runs in a season (like Carter did last year). This isn’t a 24 year old kid and his plate approach isn’t as good as the numbers would make it appear. It’s the case of a small sample size. As pitchers learned where to avoid throwing him he’s struggles increased.
rols1026, have you actually seen him play or are you making your determination just on statistics? Statistics are a great tool, but just like an old scout who thinks they can tell everything just by watching, they don’t give a full picture and tell the whole story. IF he makes contact he’ll hit it a ton. However he struggles with making contact not only in game situations, but even in BP. This isn’t a case of needing to get a handling on US pitching, his whole approach is flawed and undermining his at bats.
Of course I’ve seen him play. Did you read the articles?
When Chris Carter and Mike Napoli signed for in the vicinity of $3 mil, I knew there was no market for Park this offseason. Too bad. Hope he can prove himself in the ST.
Napoli’s making a lot more than that, but your point is accurate.
That’s the thing though. I though Carter would get $5-7 million on a 1 yr deal which would make Parks 3yr/$3mil more reasonable. After Carter signed for $3 it was pretty clear he wouldn’t be claimed.
Any team would sign Carter for three dollars.
Not all that surprising. Carter just got 1/3.5. Napoli 1/8.5 (Twins offered more apparently).
Park so far is a power only guy of still unknown value. No one wants to commit three years to that, especially considering the other two contracts.
Its very surprising. Park has more upside than someone like Carter. $3 mil per year is nothing, especially to a team like the White Sox who have money to spend during their rebuild. Why not see what a healthy Park can do after a year of MLB exposure?
Why does Park have upside? He’s 31 this year.
Because he was hitting rather well before he got injured. There’s certainly some upside with him.
I agree that the money is nothing in today’s game, but that’s all I agree with. The fact that Carter only got 3.5 and Napoli only 8.5 hurts Park’s market. And I think those players are better than Park. I don’t think Park reaches their level of success.
I don’t think Park is a 30 or more HR player each year for the next three years. I think 30 is probably what he tops out at, maybe one year or two. but I don’t see him doing it every year. The majority of the HR’s Park hit in Korea were to CF, which is where balls go to die in MN unless you’re Jim Thome.
Most of Park’s HR’s in Korea were vs pitches below 90 MPH. If he can figure out how to hit a decent fastball, then he could be better than Carter, but that is yet to be seen. Right now he’s a guy who has only crushed finesse pitchers in the US.
I know we’re talking about small sample size here, but he strikes out just as much as Carter and gets on base less. Right now his upside is not better. The hope is that he ends up as good as Carter has been. If he can’t hit a fastball, that’ll never happen.
So does Byung keep that 9MM?
Yes. MLB contracts are fully guaranteed. He just no longer takes up a 40 man spot.
Yes, unless he asks out of the contract like Nishioka did. Sounded like Park wanted to stay in the USA, so don’t see him giving up the contract.
Yes he does.
Twins should have kept him on the MLB roster if they’re really trying to get rid of that contract. If he has a solid first half, I’d imagine someone would take on that entire contract. They’re not getting salary relief for a guy in the minors.
Thats not how it works. If he rakes in AAA they will quickly promote him back to the Majors.
Of coarse there’s still time to call him up but I doubt they’ll drop someone off of the 40 man roster unless he absolutely rakes in ST.
That twins roster isn’t exactly stacked…
Stacked, no, but a lot of the spots are already taken up by young guys who should improve (Buxton, Kepler, Polanco, Sano, Vargas maybe).
That being said, they have too many 1B/DH, which is what Park is. They have Mauer, Vargas, Sano and Park. I’d take the first three before I’d take Park. Defensively I’d say Park and Vargas are a wash at 1B. I actually would prefer neither of them at 1B.
Park needs to prove that most of his problems were the wrist injury so I figured he’d start in AAA. I just didn’t think it would be while off the 40 man.
If he plays well enough to have value to another club, he would certainly receive a callup to the Twins by that point.
Wait … he’s worth MORE if he’s not taking up a 40 man slot.
I get what you’re saying. The Twins are mediocre and his affordable contract makes him a great trade chip if he starts well. Now the sport knows the Twins are not very confident in his abilities suppressing his value even if he makes team out of spring and starts well.
Shows the Twins aren’t confident right now (warranted in my opinion), but also shows that 29 other teams felt the exact same way.
There’s really nothing surprising here at all. Carter signed at roughly the same AAV with only a 1 year commitment. If a team missed out on Carter wanted someone like Park there’s still Pedro Alvarez and Adam Lind out there. Both should sign for less than the 9 mil owed Park and both have shown far more in the majors. Alvarez is even younger than Park, Alvarez has a much higher floor, has more value on defense (although admittedly neither offer much) and he probably has a better chance of rebounding that Park does of adjusting and contributing. Teams could also look to sign Matt Wieters (albeit at a higher price) and play him at 1st and DH, while also being able to be an additional back up at catcher. There are a lot of different, and better, ways to take a chance on a player improving than to put a claim in on Park.
All this. And there’s dozens of similar guys available in trade too. I just don’t know why anyone would sign Park at this point, cept maybe the Rays or someone looking for a pump and dump.
I thought he would get traded (with some of the salary being paid down).
They probably could have gotten rid of him for a PTBNL or cash if the Twins had eatten some of the salary; but there’s not much reason for them to do that. Their payroll isn’t so high that they need to cut costs just to cut costs, and after you consider the amount of the salary they’d still be having to pay out they’re better off holding on to him in the minors and having at least the chance of some kind of return on that money.
I agree with Adam. This outcome makes the most sense from both the Twins’ perspective and other teams’ perspective. The Twins would be selling low if they traded Park right now and other teams could have just nabbed Chris Carter to be more effective than Park for less money.
Rangers should have picked him up or even blue jays with hope he replaces some power production they lost when edwin left. Baffling nobody claimed him. 9 mill over 3 years isn’t breaking anyones bank esp with his upside.