The Minnesota Twins Have Won the Bidding Rights for Korean Slugger Byung Ho Park…a First Baseman

It was revealed this morning that the Minnesota Twins placed the winning bid to negotiate a contract with Byung Ho Park of the Korean Baseball Organization's Nexen Heroes. Park hit .343 with 53 home runs this past season.

The first baseman (more on that in a bit) has combined for 105 homers in the past two seasons and has driven in more than 100 runs in each of the past four seasons.

The guy is 29 years old with "a mature personality". The Twins have 30 days to come to terms on a contract.

The most glaring part of this announcement is the fact that Park is a first baseman, a position currently occupied by Twins money pit Joe Mauer.

It's very well-known that Mauer's performance over the past few seasons has been underwhelming; he hit just .265 with 10 homers last season. He was clutch with runners in scoring position, but is batting well-below his pay grade. So the fact that the Twins went after a big-hitting first baseman is expected, but also curious.

Mauer has to play somewhere. Is he finally gonna man-up and get back behind the plate (where he was a perennial All-Star)? Will the Twins front office make Park play somewhere other than his natural position at first?

Blahblahblah time will tell blahblahblah. If the Twins do sign Park, I'll be curious to see where they put him. If it was up to me (and it never is, no matter how many postcards I send Twins GM Terry Ryan), Park would start at first base, and Mauer would move back to catcher (with Kurt Suzuki backing him up).

But alas, I'm a humble *cough* morning show DJ, and Terry is the Twins' GM, because his decisions have brought the Twins so many championships...