Recent CPBL Foreign Player Signings
Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) announced several foreign player transactions this week.
So great to see our old friend Daniel Mengden back up where he belongs! pic.twitter.com/5Qt1dmHRvK
— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) September 1, 2022
Among them, the CTBC Brothers terminated the contract of 32-year-old American pitcher Daniel Mengden after he failed a routine drug test for marijuana, which is illegal in Taiwan. Mengden, who has logged over 300 career innings in MLB and also pitched in the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) for the KIA Tigers, finished the 2024 season 10-3 with a 2.86 ERA.
He ranked second in the league with 154 innings pitched and tied for fifth in strikeouts with 114. The Brothers had re-signed him in January, expecting him to be a key piece in the starting rotation again.
Fubon Guardians' Nivaldo Rodriguez allows 2 runs and strikes out 10 over 5 innings. #CPBL pic.twitter.com/ZI39DurLQc
— CPBL STATS 🪬🔮 (@GOCPBL) April 13, 2024
To fill the void, the Brothers brought in 27-year-old Nivaldo Rodriguez. The right-hander, who starred for Venezuela in the 2024 Premier12, enjoyed a successful run with the Fubon Guardians last season, going 10-4 with a 2.16 ERA.
In the same number of innings as Mengden, he boasted a much higher strikeout rate (9.1 K/9 compared to 6.7 K/9), which could give the team a potential upgrade on the mound. Rodriguez also has nine games of MLB experience from 2020 and 2021 with the Houston Astros.
Joe Wieland picks up K #1 of the night! 😤#NoKetchup🌭 | #AAPlayoffs🏆 pic.twitter.com/7yKeAqY6Hs
— Chicago Dogs (@TheChicagoDogs) September 16, 2023
In other news, the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions unveiled the signing of 35-year-old American Joe Wieland later on in the week. The Reno native has already pitched in four countries: the United States, Japan, Korea, and Mexico, and will now make Tainan City, Taiwan his next destination. In 2017, Wieland posted a 10-2 record with a 2.98 ERA and 7.6 K/9 for the Yokohama DeNA BayStars, even making an appearance in the Japan Series. However, he struggled the following year, finishing with a 4.99 ERA and subsequently departing Japan.
He then signed with the KBO’s KIA Tigers in 2019 and turned in middling results, going 8-10 with a 4.75 ERA and 7.5 K/9. Wieland briefly pitched in independent ball for the Sugar Land Lightning Sloths in 2020 before returning to affiliated ball in 2022. His most recent stint was with Olmecas de Tabasco in Mexico, where he recorded a 2.95 ERA and tallied 10.0 K/9 as a swingman.
It is worth mentioning that since 2021, the CPBL has featured a lower offensive environment, similar to the current dead-ball era in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). Most CPBL teams deploy a five-man rotation, with starters pitching once a week. While many domestic pitchers only make 15–20 starts a season, foreign signings are relied upon to anchor the rotation and surpass the 140-inning mark regularly.
CC Mercedes doesn’t have overpowering stuff but he’s been mowing down lineups so far this year.
He looks more comfortable now in year 2 with Lotte.
— Yakyu Cosmopolitan (@yakyucosmo) April 27, 2024
Other notable foreign signings in the CPBL this offseason include former NPB left-handers C.C. Mercedes and Yohander Mendez, both joining the Uni-Lions, and Cuban veteran Roenis Elias signing with the Fubon Guardians after two KBO seasons.
WBN CPBL: https://worldbaseball.com/league/taiwan-2/chinese-professional-baseball-league/
Photo Credit: Taiwan In Full Swing Baseball. This Friday, April 24, 2020, photo shows the stands with no audience at Xinzhuang Baseball Stadium in New Taipei City, Taiwan. Taiwan’s five-team Chinese Professional Baseball League is barring spectators over concerns of spreading the coronavirus in a crowded space. But Taiwan has relatively few cases of COVID-19, so the league decided it was safe to let in players, coaches, cheerleaders, costumed mascots, face mask-wearing batboys and the media. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
