1. WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 11, 201520 sports
Park Byung-ho has totaled 105 home runs over the past two seasons in the hitter-friendly Korea Baseball Organization. Yonhap
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota
Twins have won the bidding for negotiat-
ing rights to Park Byung-ho, a 29-year-
old first baseman
who totaled 105
home runs over the
past two seasons in
the hitter-friendly
Korea Baseball Or-
ganization.
The notice from Park’s team, the Nexen
Heroes, that Minnesota’s bid was the
highest was announced Monday by Major
League Baseball. The posting fee was not
disclosed by either MLB or the Twins,
who said they wouldn’t comment on the
process “out of respect” for Park and the
Heroes. But according to multiple reports,
the amount was $12.85 million.
Per KBO rules, the Twins have a 30-
day exclusive negotiating period to sign
Park to a contract. In the interim, Park
will remain under control of the Heroes. If
for some reason a deal isn’t reached, the
Twins would get their bid money back.
Park has a career .951 on-base-plus-
slugging percentage in nine professional
seasons in the KBO.
Park batted .343 in 2015 with 53 home
runs and 146 RBI in 140 games with 161
strikeouts.
His best fit with the Twins will probably
be as a designated hitter, with Joe Mauer
and the $69 million over three years re-
maining on his contract entrenched at
first base. That leaves a logjam at third
base with arbitration-eligible incumbent
Trevor Plouffe, assuming he isn’t traded,
and young slugger Miguel Sano, who hit
18 home runs in 80 games this season as
a rookie. The Twins don’t want Sano to be
a full-time designated hitter, so they’ll look
at him as a corner outfielder.
With the retirement of right fielder Torii
Hunter, there’s more of an opening in the
outfield, though the Twins still have By-
ron Buxton, Aaron Hicks and Eddie Rosa-
rio to sort out. Rosario had a solid rookie
year in left field, Hicks finally emerged
as a productive major league hitter and
Buxton has been widely considered the top
prospect in baseball. Buxton could always
start 2016 in Triple-A for more seasoning,
and Hicks could be considered as a trade
chip.
Whichever way the lineup shakes out
for those six positions, the Twins have
legitimate options, a sign of progress fol-
lowing four straight years averaging 96
losses from 2011-14. They finished 83-79,
good enough to stay in the AL wild-card
race until the second-to-last day of the
season.
One of the first setbacks of that four-
year fall for the Twins was the acquisition
of middle infielder Tsuyoshi Nishioka, who
lasted less than two seasons after signing
a three-year, $9.25 million deal after the
Twins paid a $5.3 million posting fee to
his team in Japan.
MLB’s agreement with Nippon Profes-
sional Baseball recently changed to cap
posting fees at $20 million and allow mul-
tiple major league teams to negotiate. The
Korean league still has the same system
as the Japanese league used to, essentially
a silent auction with no limit on the bid
for exclusive negotiating rights.
After a successful stint in Asia, free
agent South Korean pitcher Oh Seung-
hwan will pursue a big league career this
winter, a source close to the right-hander
said Tuesday.
The source said Oh, who has pitched the
last two seasons for the Hanshin Tigers in
Nippon Professional Baseball, will travel
to the United States this week to possibly
begin contract talks.
“He will stay there for about 10 days,”
the source added.
“Multiple clubs are showing interest in
him. And this trip will be an opportunity
for him to start some negotiations.”
The 33-year-old right-hander has led the
Central League in saves in each of the past
two seasons.
Despite a leg injury that cut his season
short in September, Oh tied Tony Barnette
with 41 saves this year, along with a 2.83
ERA, striking out 66 in 69 1/3 innings. Last
year, his first in the NPB, Oh recorded 39
saves with a 1.76 ERA while striking out
81 in 66 2/3 innings.
Oh is the career leader in saves in the
Korea Baseball Organization, having re-
corded 277 saves in nine seasons with the
Samsung Lions.
The pitcher signed a two-year deal with
the Tigers before the 2014 season.
Another source close to the player said
Oh has no plans to travel to Japan for the
time being, despite reports out of Japan
that have claimed the Tigers were trying to
meet with Oh to discuss an extension.
“It’s news to me that Hanshin and Oh
Seung-hwan will meet for a contract,” the
source added.
“He will concentrate on landing a major
league contract.”
Oh is the second South Korean free agent
out of Japan to declare his intent to play in
the majors.
Last week, the reigning Japan Series
MVP Lee Dae-ho opted out of his contract
with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks to also
seek a big league job. (Yonhap)
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The
president of the German soccer federation
resigned on Monday over a suspect pay-
ment to FIFA, saying that he was taking
“political responsibility” despite not having
done anything wrong.
The payment in connection with the 2006
World Cup in Germany has led to a tax
evasion probe against Wolfgang Niersbach
and two other former top-ranking federa-
tion officials.
“I have realized myself that that the time
has come to take political responsibility for
the events around the 2006 World Cup ...
(although) I can say that I worked there
absolutely cleanly and conscientiously,”
Niersbach told reporters after and emer-
gency meeting of the federation’s board.
Frankfurt prosecutors are investigating a
payment of 6.7 million euros ($7.22 million)
the federation made to FIFA in connection
with the 2006 tournament.
Niersbach, who has been the president of
the federation since 2012, is also a member
of the executive committee of both FIFA
and UEFA. He had been seen as a possible
successor to Michel Platini as UEFA presi-
dent.
Rainer Koch and Reinhard Rauball,
two DFB vice presidents, will jointly take
over in a caretaker position and said they
wanted Niersbach to continue working in
the international bodies.
The board had no power to dismiss
Niersbach, who stressed that the resigna-
tion was a personal decision.
“Things have surfaced in the past few
days that lead me to resign, in the sense
of political responsibility,” Niersbach said,
without giving details.
Speaking after Niersbach’s resignation,
Koch said a law firm hired by the DFB
to look into the affair had singled out a
number of points that need further clarifi-
cation.
“They give us cause to say that we’ll have
to look very closely into the circumstances
of how the 2006 World Cup was awarded,”
Koch said without giving details.
Korean reliever
Oh to pursue
MLB career
Oh Seung-hwan Yonhap
South Korea will look to extend
its winning streak when it hosts
underdog Myanmar in a World
Cup qualifier
this week.
T h e 4 8 t h -
ranked South
K o r e a w i l l
face the 161st-
ranked Myan-
mar at Suwon
World Cup Sta-
dium in Suwon,
Gyeonggi Prov-
ince, at 8 p.m. Thursday.
It will be South Korea’s fifth
match in Group G in the second
round of the Asian qualification
for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Coached by Uli Stielike, South
Korea has won its first four
matches over Myanmar, Laos,
Lebanon and Kuwait, scoring 12
goals while giving up none.
In the previous meeting, South
Korea defeated Myanmar 2-0 in
June. Korea is riding an 11-match
unbeaten streak.
For the year, South Korea has
dropped just one match — a
2-1 loss to Australia at the AFC
Asian Cup final in January —
while winning 14 matches and
drawing three.
After Myanmar, South Korea
will travel to Laos for another
Group G match next Tuesday.
It will be South Korea’s final
match of the year.
Victories over both countries
will give South Korea 16 wins in
2015, the most in a calendar year
since 1980.
Though both of the upcoming
opponents will be heavy under-
dogs on paper, Stielike called on
his players to be mentally pre-
pared.
“We will need to bear down
and concentrate,” the coach said
prior to the team practice Mon-
day evening.
“We’ve had a good run this
year, and we’ll try to end it on a
positive note.”
Korea is trying to play in its
ninth straight World Cup finals.
And Stielike said he has another
long-term objective in mind.
“It’s nice to be at 48th on the
FIFA rankings,” he said. “But
Iran is the first in Asia at No. 43.
We will try to overtake Iran as
the highest-ranked Asian team.”
Stielike has been deploying an
aggressive formation of late, with
two wingers and an attacking
midfielder supporting a featured
striker. It allowed creative mid-
fielders, such as Swansea City’s
Ki Sung-yueng, to jump in on
offense without compromising
defense, and South Korea have
been able to dictate the pace.
Stielike will welcome back Tot-
tenham Hotspurs’ Son Heung-
min, who sat out October’s match-
es with a foot injury. (Yonhap)
Korea aims to extend win streak
Feeling Minnesota
German soccer
federation president
quits over payment
Twins win bidding
for rights to
Park Byung-ho
A screen grab of the Minnesota Twins’ website Yonhap
The Minnesota Twins were the sur-
prising, or even curious, winner of the
Major League Baseball bid for posted
South Korean slugger Park Byung-
ho, since they don’t appear to have a
pressing need at his natural position,
first base.
It wasn’t so much the question of
how much they were willing to spend
as why, since the Twins have former
MVP-winning catcher Joe Mauer
firmly entrenched at first base.
Mauer is still owed $69 million over
the next three seasons.
Park has played occasional third
base, but not enough to warrant a big
league shift with the Twins, whose
incumbent third baseman, Trevor
Plouffe, led the club with 86 RBIs
in 2015. Plus, the Twins used their
22-year-old rookie Miguel Sano as the
primary designated hitter this year,
and he responded with 18 home runs
in 80 games. A third base prospect,
Sano played just nine games at the
hot corner and two at first base.
With this potential logjam, where
would Park — and his 105 home runs
in the last two seasons — fit in?
The Twins’ general manager Terry
Ryan offered a solution: keeping both
Mauer and Plouffe at their current
positions, and moving Sano to outfield
to make room for Park as the new
designated hitter.
“He’s more of a DH fit for our club,”
Ryan said. (Yonhap)
Slugger
seen as DH
Korea’s Son Heung-min arrives at Incheon International Airport on
Tuesday. Yonhap