They’ve been trying to do it for years with players that have been posted from Japan. Failed pursuits of Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki have resulted in the Phillies ramping up their attempts to bring someone from one of Japan, Korea or some other international baseball league to the team. This weekend, they were successful.
Chan-min Park represents one of the team’s biggest international signings since Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez. He’s got the goods to become successful should he reach that ceiling.
Park operates with a 91-93 mph fastball that has touched as high as 94. He can pound the zone with the offering and it has late ride, allowing him to blow it past more inexperienced batters. Working with a clean and repeatable delivery from a three-quarters slot, he pounds right-handed hitters in with some added sink to his heater.
His best secondaries are a pair of breaking balls in a curveball and slider. They’re presently just solid pitches, but could develop into plus in time, particularly the slide piece, which has already generated spin rates north of 2800 RPMs while sitting 78-82 mph. He has both a changeup and splitter in his arsenal, but has largely backpocketed the latter. Park likes to throw the cambio to both right and left-handed batters and it shows promise as a future putaway offering.
The team now has several high profile additions to their international group with Park and Francisco Renteria. It’s a good step in the right direction.
