The Twins win the rights to negotiate with Byung-Ho Park

The Minnesota Twins have won the bidding rights to Byung-Ho Park, one of the most dominant bats in the Korean Baseball Organization over the past four seasons. Park, who was posted by the Nexen Heroes, hit .343/.436/.714 with 53 home runs last year for Nexen.

The Twins’ bid is being reported at $12.5 million, which will be returned to the team if it does not sign Park. The two sides have thirty days to agree to terms. The Twins already have Joe Mauer at first base and used Miguel Sano as their designated hitter in his rookie season, but they figure to find playing time for all three players in 2016.

Our own Steve Sypa wrote a piece on Park last week, detailing both his meteoric increase of power and the potential flaws that could work against him in Major League Baseball. He is primarily a first basemen, and the Mets already have a power-hitting first basemen in Lucas Duda. So the Mets never really seemed like a suitor for the slugging first baseman.