The Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), the top professional league in Taiwan, held its mid-season draft on June 28. The draft comes after the UNI-Lions won the CPBL’s first half of the season.
The Fubon Guardians had the first pick in the mid-season draft and selected former MLB player Yu Chang. Chang made his MLB debut in 2019 for the Cleveland Guardians. He was the sixteenth Taiwan-born player to play in the MLB. Chang played five seasons in the MLB with the Guardians, Pirates, Rays, and Red Sox and batted .204 with twenty home runs. The Rays signed him to a minor league contract in 2024 but recently registered for the CPBL draft.
The second pick made by the TSG Hawks was used on Wu Nien-tin, who was formerly playing in Nippon Professional Baseball. Wu joined the Saitama Seibu Lions in 2016 and has been playing in Japan until now. He played 382 in the NPB, where he batted .224.
The third pick was made by the CTBC Brothers on Hsu Ting-Lun, a high schooler. The UNI Lions drafted Chen Sheng-Ping with the fourth pick. Chen played four seasons at different levels of the minor league system for the Arizona Diamondbacks. The fifth pick by the Rakuten Monkeys was used to select Chang Chao-Hung, who is from high school. The final pick of the first round by the Wei Chuan Dragons was also used on a high school player, Tseng Sheng-An.
A total of 51 players were drafted on Friday.
Find more results of the draft, here.
Photo Credit: Yu Chang #20 of the Boston Red Sox looks on before the game. (Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images)
