Notes, quotes and comment

It's official: ByungHo Park was given his release Friday. He's going back to Korea and the Nexen Heroes.

I still think it could have worked here, but he got one chance, and whether it was because of injury or his skill set, didn't take advantage of it. And he never got another.

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Former Twins outfielder Oswaldo Arcia is taking his power bat and stubborn approach to Japan. So he's gonna get paid: $1.7 million guaranteed from the Nippon Ham Fighters. He'll be teammates with Michael Tonkin again.

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The Twins have hired Joel Skinner to manage their Triple A team. Fans of a certain age might remember him as a light-hitting catcher in the 1980s with three AL clubs (White Sox, Yankees, Indians). Fans of even older vintage might remember his dad, Bob Skinner, who was the left fielder for the 1960 World Series champion Pirates and later a major league manager.

Joel Skinner had a very brief stint as Cleveland manager himself (2002; he was 35-41) and has managed in the minors 13 seasons. He's been in the White Sox system for the past five seasons.

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Twins signed infielder Taylor Featherston, outfielder James Ramsey and catcher Wynston Sawyer to minor league contracts.

— Rhett Bollinger (@RhettBollinger) December 15, 2017

Ramsey appears to be the most interesting name of the bunch. The Twins drafted him out of high school in 2011 but didn't sign him; he went to Florida State instead and was a first round pick of the Cardinals. He really hasn't hit enough at any level to justify that draft pick, and he hits left-handed, which doesn't really fit with the Twins outfield. A right-handed hitter would be more useful.

I would expect to see Sawyer in training camp, because he's a catcher and they need guys to catch all those bullpen sessions, but he's probably Double A fodder. Featherston has somehow gotten more than 200 plate appearances over the past three years with three different major league teams. Utility infielder on a team that doesn't have an opening for such on the major league roster. 

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. 

Park banged

13 pitchers and what do you get?

Not, to the apparent surprise and consternation of those around Twins training camp, ByungHo Park:

Crazy stuff. Twins reassign Shuck. Option Murphy and reassign PARK.

— LaVelle E. Neal III (@LaVelleNeal) March 30, 2017

A few thoughts from one who would have kept Park:

* If the Twins are opening with a 13-man pitching staff, they're almost certain to maintain a 13-man pitching staff all season.

* We probably should have seen a 13-man staff coming. On Wednesday Ervin Santana, the obvious opening day starter, couldn't get through five innings. Hector Santiago, who starts today against the Triple A squad, has all of 13 Grapefruit League innings. The post-surgical Phil Hughes has struggled more than impressed this month. And the Twins have few off-days in their early April schedule.

Bottom line: The Twins right now can't expect that their starters are going to eat innings.

* That said, there was an obvious alternative to sending Park to Triple A: dumping Danny Santana.

Park may be a one-tool player, but that tool -- power -- plays. Santana does nothing well enough to put him in the game to do it.

Park isn't on the 40-man roster, and Santana is out of options, so doing it this way keeps both in the organization. But I don't see a lot of value in keeping Santana around. He's third-string everywhere.

* A co-worker was jeering Thursday evening at the notion of Robbie Grossman as the base DH. It's not as ridiculous as Grossman's play in left field as 2016 wound down, and it's what I expected to emerge when spring training opened.

Grossman lacks Park's power, but he does get on base, and that was a significant failing in the Twins lineup last season.

* This does leave the lineup vulnerable to left-handed pitching, with no significant right-handed alternative to Joe Mauer, Eddie Rosario and Max Kepler, each of whom struggled against southpaws last season. Two of them were going to play against lefties even with Park around; now all three will. And if Paul Molitor is as reluctant to platoon Jason Castro as I suspect he will be, that will make four exploitable lineup spots for lefties.