The Park signing

Byung Ho Park played for Korea in the Premier 12 tournament
last month in Japan.

The Twins made it official Tuesday: Korean slugger Byung Ho Park has signed a four-year contract with a fifth-year option. It's $12 million guaranteed and a max value, apparently, of $22 million. $12 million is a lot of money to me and probably to you, but is maybe half of what was generally expected.

#Twins’ signing of Park reinforces unfairness of posting system. Player has no leverage if he burns to play in majors. At MLB team’s mercy.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 1, 2015

He may well have gotten more in a free market, but it wasn't a free market. The Twins may have lowballed him, but that's happened to players entering pro ball for generations.

Park is hardly a sure bet. Behind his big home run totals in Korea are some equally big strikeout rates. His contract is roughly the same as that of Jung Ho Kang, who came over from Korea to have a very strong rookie season for Pittsburgh, but the Twins paid more than twice what the Pirates did for the posting fee.

If he turns out to be merely an average 1B-DH, this contract is a bargain. If he turns out to be better than that, it's even more a steal for the Twins. And if he turns out to be a complete bust, this contract is digestable in the context of a $100 million payroll budget.