A decade ago, the idea of Korean-born hitters heading overseas to establish themselves in Major League Baseball was still relatively new. Of the 13 Korean-born position players to appear in a major league game, 11 debuted in the 2015 season or later.
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Byung-Ho Park was among the most heralded Korean players to arrive in MLB in the last decade. He certainly possessed the most power, hitting 53 home runs and slashing .343/.436/.714 in 2015. That caught the attention of the Minnesota Twins, who signed Park to a four-year, $12 million contract in December 2015.
Park brought his power bat, hitting 12 home runs in only 215 at-bats during his first season with the Twins. But he batted just .191 with almost twice as many strikeouts (80) as hits (41). After spending most of the 2016 and 2017 seasons at Triple-A, Park returned to Korea, where his career continued for another eight seasons in the KBO.
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Sunday, Park announced his immediate retirement from professional baseball, according to Yoo Jee-Ho of Yonhap News Agency.
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“I was blessed with so much love from fans over my 20 years in professional baseball,” Park said, via Yoo. “I’d like to thank all the managers and coaches I’ve had, and I was really happy to have played with all of my teammates. I bounced around several teams, and I will never forget all the love and support from my fans.”
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Park played 19 seasons professionally (2005-25), retiring with 418 home runs (fourth on the KBO’s all-time list) and 1,244 RBIs (10th).
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Park was only briefly a Twin, but his time in Minnesota coincided with that of both Joe Mauer and Byron Buxton, connecting multiple generations of stars.
In Korea, he was a two-time KBO Most Valuable Player, and a regular on their teams in the World Baseball Classic (most recently in 2023).
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