A sensation in Korea, can Eric Thames make it in the majors?
— -- Editor's note: This story originally ran on Saturday, Nov. 20, 2016. Eric Thames signed a three-year contract with the Brewers on Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2016.
Korea's contributions to Major League Baseball have run the gamut in recent years. Jung Ho Kang, the crown jewel of transplants, is an .800 OPS anchor in the Pittsburgh Pirates' order. Seattle's Dae-Ho Lee flashed some power this season, with 14 home runs in 104 games. Baltimore's Hyun Soo Kim hit .302 without a lot of pop, and Byung Ho Park batted .191 in 62 games with Minnesota before a demotion to the minors and season-ending wrist surgery in August. That was hardly what the Twins had in mind when they signed him to a four-year, $12.85 million contract a year ago.
So who will be next on the list? The primary name on MLB's Korea radar has California roots, an outsized personality and enough of a mystery factor to suggest he could be a wild card in this winter's free-agent market.
His name is Eric Thames, and Toronto fans might recall him as a platoon outfielder with the Blue Jays in 2011 and 2012. After drifting from Seattle to Houston to the NC Dinos in the Korean Baseball Organization, he has lured a procession of scouts to the city of Changwon, on Korea's southeastern coast. The? San Diego Padres, Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays are among the clubs that have followed Thames in Korea and expressed varying degrees of interest in him, sources said.
Thames, 30, has spent the past three years putting up cartoon numbers that bring to mind the success enjoyed by Tuffy Rhodes and Wladimir Balentien in Japan. In 2015, Thames won the MVP award and a Gold Glove at first base, became the first KBO player to hit 40 homers and steal 40 bases in a season, logged a .391/.497/.790 slash line and became the first player in Korean baseball to hit for the cycle twice in the same season.
This year, Thames regressed slightly, but he still hit 40 homers and logged an OPS of 1.101 for the Dinos, who lost to the Doosan Bears in the KBO final, known as the Korean Series.
Now that Thames has reached the end of a one-year, $1.5 million contract with the Dinos, options abound. He could return to the Dinos, although his success might have priced him out of the KBO. He could pursue a deal in Japan. Or he could plunge into the MLB free-agent market, where the left-handed power-hitting options include Michael Saunders, Colby Rasmus, Mitch Moreland, Adam Lind,? Pedro Alvarez and Brandon Moss.
Is Thames an everyday option for a team in search of a power bat, or more of a platoon type? Interested major league teams aren't the only ones asking that question. Four years since his last big league at-bat, Thames is curious what the future might bring.
Related Stories
ABC News Live