The Twins won the Byung-ho Park sweepstakes with a $12.85 million bid, and now have 30 days to negotiate with him. They will likely spend most of those 30 days seeking a taker for Joe Mauer, once the team’s savior.
Mauer was once the best catcher in baseball, and as a native son of Minnesota, the foundational player in the franchise. In 2011 he signed an eight-year, $84 million deal that has since become an albatross. Injuries have forced Mauer to move from catcher to first base, and eaten away at his skills. He’s scheduled to make $23 million a year through 2018, yet his on-base percentage hit a career-low .338 in 2015, and he was worth 0.3 WAR per Fangraphs.
Korean Slugger's Agent Says 'Power Plays,' Park Worth $100 Million
Mauer was worth -7.6 runs offensively, -11.7 in the field, and -3.3 on the base paths. Finding a team, even one that spends recklessly such as the Dodgers, to pay $23 million for that level of production will be impossible. Instead, they will have to eat the majority of that deal in a trade, or suck it up and use him in a part-time role at DH.
A third option could be trying Mauer in left field, shifting Aaron Hicks to right field, and eating into the playing time of 24-year-old Eddie Rosario. He made his MLB debut in 2015, and slashed .267/.289/.459 with 13 home runs and 11 steals.
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Park comes to MLB as a hyped slugger, and for good reason. He has swatted 105 home runs combined over the past two seasons in the Korean Baseball Organization for Nexen, and posted .303, .343 batting averages respectively. Park, 29, has hit 31 or more home runs in four consecutive seasons, and his agent Alan Nero speculated that he’d be a $100 million player if he were Cuban instead of Korean.
Nero also represents Pirates infielder Jung-ho Kang, who came to America with questions about his inflated KBO numbers and ended up an integral player for Pittsburgh until he suffered a broken leg that ended his season. Dodgers left-hander Hyun-jin Ryu has also been a success for the Dodgers since coming stateside in 2013, although he missed all of 2015 with arm trouble.
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