WBC Team Preview: Chinese Taipei
Chinese Taipei, per Jordan Shusterman of Yahoo! Sports, includes nine players in MLB organizations and more players on MLB Pipeline’s top 30 team prospect lists than any other team in the tournament.
Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports
Notable Players
Setting an example for the youngsters will be infielder Yu Chang, who became the first Chinese Taipei player to make an all-WBC tournament team in 2023 when he went 7-for-16 with two home runs and eight RBIs in four games. He was named the MVP of his pool. Chang, 30, played for four teams over five major league seasons (2019-2023). In his best year, he hit nine homers in 89 games for the 2021 Guardians and posted a .693 OPS.
Of the nine in an MLB organization, only outfielder Stuart Fairchild (.606 OPS in 28 games with the Braves last year) and Pirates middle infielder Tsung-Che Cheng (seven career at-bats, no hits) have reached the majors. Fairchild and No. 6 Cubs prospect Jonathon Long (20 homers, .883 OPS at Triple-A Iowa in 2025) are the only U.S.-born players on the team. Everyone else was born in Taiwan.
Infielder Hao-Yu Lee, 23, is the Tigers’ No. 6 prospect and slashed .243/.342/.406 with 14 homers for Triple-A Toledo last season. He also stole 22 bases.
Three Athletics pitching prospects are on the team. LHP Wei-En Lin, 20, struck out 117 in 87 innings while pitching to a 3.72 ERA across three minor-league levels last season. He finished the year in Double-A. RHP Tzu-Chen Sha‘s ERA was 4.15 in 99 2/3 innings split almost evenly between Low-A and High-A. Right-hander Chen Zhong-A0 Zhuang made 26 starts at Double-A Midland (4.08 ERA, 145 strikeouts, 145 2/3 innings).
LHP Yu-Min Lin, 22, is Arizona’s No. 20 prospect and pitched to a 6.64 ERA over 23 starts for Triple-A Reno last season.
Notable Coaches
Hao-Jiu Tseng will manage after serving as hitting coach for Chinese Taipei at the 2023 event. He told Casey Drottar of MLB.com that the bigger role requires a stoic demeanor. “Not much smiling,” he said. “With more responsibilities, I always show them a poker face.” The bullpen coach is Chien-Ming Wang, who was second in Cy Young voting for the Yankees in 2006 when he went 19-6 with a 3.63 ERA. Wang pitched five seasons for the Yanks and nine in the majors (2005-2016). He struck out 394 in 845 2/3 innings.
WBC History
Chinese Taipei is one of 13 teams to participate in all five previous WBCs. The only time it advanced to the second round was in 2013. In 2023, the team went 2-2 in pool play despite Chang’s heroics and was eliminated by a tiebreaker.
Pool
It’s a tough draw, with defending champion Japan hosting Pool C in what will be a raucous Tokyo Dome, and a strong Korean team expected to advance as well. Chinese Taipei will be looking to surprise, as will Australia and Czechia. Chinese Taipei opens the tournament on March 4 at 10 p.m. ET against Australia. The five teams in each pool all play each other once, with the top two in each pool moving on to the quarterfinals.
For a look at MMO’s Robert Colonna’s rankings of the 20 WBC teams, click here.
The post WBC Team Preview: Chinese Taipei appeared first on Metsmerized Online.