Byung-ho Park: Possible Fantasy Outlook in 2016
By Brad Kelly
We are entering one of the most exciting times of the baseball offseason as the annual winter meetings and free agency action is getting ready to heat up. One other interesting event during this time is seeing what foreign players are posted and to see if any MLB teams will try and bring them over stateside.
Over the last handful of years we have seen some quality posted players brought over, Masahiro Tanaka, Yu Darvish, Jung Ho Kang and Hisashi Iwakuma are a few, and we have seen that these players can be solid immediate fantasy contributors once they arrive.
Over the weekend news broke that a winning posting bid of nearly $13 million had been made by an unidentified team for the negotiating rights to Korean Baseball Organization star, Byung-ho Park. It was not until today that we finally knew who had the won and that happened to actually be the Minnesota Twins.
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I don’t know about you, but I was surprised at first and then ultimately intrigued at the Twins gamble at possibly bringing in a premier power hitter. The Twins clearly do not spend like other clubs, so to see them splurge and spend $13 million on just a posting fee shows that they are serious about wanting his services. Now I know that there is always the scenario where no deal is reached within the 30 days window that they have to orchestrate a deal, and they would get their money back, but I have feeling that the Twins are eyeing Park as a part of their young and upcoming nucleus heading forward.
Byung-ho Park has looked every part of the Korean Babe Ruth over the last two seasons in the KBO as he has mashed over 50+ homers each of the last two seasons. After Jung Ho Kang came over in 2015, it was clear that Park was the best hitter left in the league and Park clearly had his sights on taking his talents to the MLB after two amazing back to back seasons.
If a deal does get done, Park should send Kang a Christmas card because Kang’s 2015 success will actually parlay into Park getting more money as teams starts to believe that the KBO to MLB transition can be made. While Kang and Park do profile as different types of hitters, Kang has sort of created a baseline that MLB teams will feel appropriate for KBO products including Park.
With Park’s peripheral stats unavailable, we can only go by what his season total lines have been over his KBO career and video to see if his swing projects to the MLB level. It is very interesting to see that Park did not become a prolific home-run hitter until nearly his seventh year in the KBO where he jumped his total up by 19 homers from 2011 to 2012.
From them on he hit the beginning of his prime and hit 30+ homers in 2012 and 2013, amd then saw that total climb even further with 52 in 2014 and 53 in 2015. Park has been posting video game type of numbers and even if scouts deem KBO pitching around AA or AAA level, these stats would have certainly warranted him to being in the bigs already.
Last season he ended the year with a, .343/53 HR/146 RBI/10 SB/1.150 OPS line, which was an actual across the board improvement from his monster 2014 campaign. These stats are ludicrous and will not resurface in the MLB, but it is hard to ignore the sheer power that Park has been able to display.
After watching some of his video and reading what scouts have noticed, Park has a very smooth swing and his slight uppercut swing path is the key to generating his ridiculous power. He does strike out a lot which will hurt his AVG certainly in the MLB, but everything about his swing looks like it will transition nicely at the highest level.
I was a big fan of Jung Ho Kang when the Pirates snagged him last season, but I am actually an even bigger fan of Park because his power can play at the MLB level. He is not out of control in the box just swinging for the downs in every at bat even though his K numbers say differently, and he showed in the KBO that he can handle higher velocity at a similar clip to what Kang showed.
Even with how good Park could be, it will not matter if he cannot get consistent playing time in 2016 if the Twins bring him over. Right now they have a $100 million light hitting investment in Joe Mauer at first base, and with Miguel Sano manning the DH spot at the moment, Park has no clear path to playing time.
While the Twins are probably stuck with Mauer for the time being, they have wanted Sano to work out in LF over the winter hopefully freeing up the DH spot in the meantime. Defensively Park has graded out as average in the field, but with his offensive production that’s all you can ask for from him. If Sano can somehow just be average in LF, Park would either take over first or man the DH spot in the middle of what should be a solid Twins lineup, of course buoying his counting stats as well.
There have been Mark Reynolds comps thrown out already on Park, but even though I agree that they both have the power, Park’s swing and approach are much more compact than Reynolds has showed. If Park can get consistent playing time in the middle of the Twins order I could definitely see him posting a, .265-.270/20 HR/70 RBI/5 SB line, which would be a great find for your CI spot later in the draft. This all hinges of course on the Twins actually bringing him over, but if they do keep track of Park as the season draws near as he will be one of the better late round gems in 2016.