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.