According to multiple sources, the Pittsburgh Pirates did not submit the winning bid for first baseman Byung-ho Park. The Nexen Heroes received a $12.85M bid for the posting fee last week from an unknown team. Early reports in the morning from CJ Nitkowski, who has ties in Korea, claimed that the Pirates won the rights to negotiate with Park, but that report was quickly shot down by numerous industry sources, with Buster Olney first breaking the news to Pirates’ fans.
Heard this morning that the Pirates did NOT win the bidding for Byung-ho Park. Developing…
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) November 9, 2015
Jon Heyman also confirmed the news shortly afterwards.
Pirates did not win bidding for Park, sources say
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) November 9, 2015
The winning team will be announced later today.
Update 10:18 AM: Reports are that the Minnesota Twins have won the right to negotiate with Park.