The Nexen Heroes, a team in the Korean Baseball Organization, is going to post superstar first baseman Byung-ho Park on Monday and MLB teams are expected to bid heavily. Park was a teammate of Pirates infielder Jung-ho Kang, who slashed .287/.355/.461 with 15 home runs.
Park will be a hot commodity; he has belted 105 home runs in the last two seasons in the KBO, with batting averages of .303 and .343, respectively. Park is a late-blooming slugger, whose power began to emerge in full just five years ago. He debuted for Nexen in 2011, when he hit .265 with 12 home runs in 51 games.
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In 2012, his first full season with Nexen, Park batted .290 with 31 homers. He hit 37 home runs the next season, before transforming into one of the premier power hitters in the world in 2014. His slash line this season of .343/.436/.714 is absurd, and before his big numbers are dismissed as a product of the hitter-friendly KBO, Kang faced similar criticism only to become a major factor in the Pirates making the playoffs for the third consecutive season.
One team stands out as a possible suitor for Park, and they are the Red Sox. Fenway Park is a haven for right-handed sluggers because they can bounce balls off the Green Monster in left field all summer. The Sox are also in need of an upgrade in the right-handed power department. Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval are no spring chickens, and the rest of their hitters are high-contact, low-power types.
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Finally, Park represents an opportunity for Boston to snare the next “Big Papi” David Ortiz. Park, 29, discovered his power stroke much later than most hitters do, a la Ortiz, who was cast away by the Twins in 2002 before becoming a Hall of Fame-caliber hitter. Ortiz, 39, had been in the majors for six seasons before his evolution.
Boston’s financial war chest will come into play, as Park won’t be subject to the $20 million max bid that applied to Yankees ace Masahiro Tanaka, who was coming from Japan.
The Red Sox are not shy about signing international talent to big money. Last season they inked teenage shortstop Yoan Moncada to a $31.5 million contract, that actually cost them $63 million thanks to penalties for exceeding their international spending limits. That will come into play again should they decide to ink Park, and could deter them from being serious bidders.
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