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.

Byung-ho Park effects

I didn't see this coming, but few if any outside the closed-mouth Twins organization did: The Twins on Monday landed the negotiation rights to Korean slugger Byung-ho Park.

In a nutshell: Park's Korean team, the Nexen Heroes, posted the 29-year-old first baseman. The Twins bid nearly $13 million for the right to sign Park. If they do sign him by the Dec. 8 deadline, the Twins owe the Heroes the $12.85 million; if they don't, they owe the Heroes nothing and Park plays in Korea next year.

It's rare, but not unprecedented, for a posting rights winner to fail to sign the player in question, so I expect the Twins and Park to strike a deal. Then what?

Park racked up big power numbers in the Korean league, bopping more than 50 homers each of the past two seasons. While there is no reason to expect him to hit 50 in the states, his Korean production was similar to that of Jung Ho Kang, who had a fine rookie season for Pittsburgh before suffering an injury on a take-out slide.

Jung Ho Kang, 2014: .356 AVG, .459 OBP, .739 SLG Byung-ho Park, 2015: .343 AVG, .436 OBP, .714 SLG Kang hit .287/.355/.461 as MLB rookie.

— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) November 9, 2015

Park has flaws. He's limited to first base defensively, and he has, like Miguel Sano, a tendency to swing-and-miss. Inside fastballs are specifically said to be an issue for him. But if he hits as Kang did last year, there's certainly room for him in the Twins lineup.

But where? His likely addition opens a new window on the Sano-to-the-outfield chatter of last week. Pencil Park and Joe Mauer in to share DH and first base duties. If Trevor Plouffe remains at third base, the outfield is the only option to keep Sano in the lineup.

Which is, really, rather backwards thinking. Sano has to be in the lineup, and you work around that reality.

Can Sano play outfield? He hasn't in games, Even if he's passable in left or right, there's no way he's going to be as adept as Eddie Rosario or Aaron Hicks.

Which, as I see it, makes a trade of Plouffe likely. I'd rather have Sano at third than in the outfield, and it seems silly to stall Byron Buxton's emergence for anybody. I'm hoping that the Sano-as-an-outfielder notion is a smokescreen designed to bolster Plouffe's trade value by presenting the illusion that the Twins aren't trading him to make room for Park.

Even if they are.