The status of ByungHo Park

There were conflicting reports Sunday on ByungHo Park:

After short stint with #MNTwins, Korean DH/1B Byung-Ho Park has rejoined his former KBO club, Nexen Heroes. One year, 1.5 billion Korean won ($1.4 million).

— Jeeho Yoo (@Jeeho_1) November 27, 2017

Source confirms ByungHo Park release/return to KBO is in the works but "lots of details" remain in the complicated transaction. #mntwins https://t.co/kqt6tybJaS

— Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) November 27, 2017

The issue, I'm sure: Baseball's rules do not permit players to renounce their guaranteed money to get out of a contract. Park may want out of his remaining year with the Twins, and the Twins may want out of it too, but the contract is not so easily broken. 

Assuming that this gets resolved with Park returning to the Heroes, there is a lesson here -- and it's not the "stay away from Japansese/Korean players" moral some nitwits on Twitter have offered. It's that right-right first basemen -- throw right, hit right -- better take advantage of their opportunities when they come, because a second might never arrive. 

My sense all along has been that Park is better than Kennys Vargas. But Park didn't -- probably because of injury -- take advantage of his opportunity at the start of 2016, and even though he clearly outplayed Vargas in spring training last year, when the major league club needed a bat it brought up Vargas instead. 

They had reasons: Vargas was on the 40 and Park was not, and Park never really got going in Triple A. But Vargas hasn't exactly torn apart the International League either, and he's had repeated chances in the majors. What separates him from Park is being a switch-hitter.