Southpaw Wei-Yin Chen has agreed to join the Hanshin Tigers for 2021, per MLB Insider Jon Heyman (via Twitter). The terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed.
Chen’s MLB career began when the Taiwanese lefty signed a three-year guarantee worth $11.3MM with the Baltimore Orioles before the 2012 season. At that time, he was coming off five seasons starring for the Chunichi Dragons in Japan, where he posted with a 2.48 ERA. He returned to Japan in 2020 with 26 innings of 2.42 ERA baseball for the NPB’s Chiba Lotte Marines.
In between, he made his debut for Baltimore as a 26-year-old in 2012, posting a strong 4.02 ERA/4.42 FIP over 192 2/3 innings. He remained a member of Baltimore’s rotation for four seasons, finishing his tenure there with a 3.72 ERA/4.14 FIP across 117 starts totaling 706 2/3 innings. Those numbers were good for 9.4 bWAR, or 2.6 bWAR per 200 innings. While he was never a frontline starter for the O’s, he put together solid seasons in the middle of the rotation for a contender under manager Buck Showalter.
His four seasons with the Marlins were less efficient. He signed a five-year $80MM contract, but injuries marred his time in Miami. He was released prior to the final season of the deal in 2020. In the four years prior, he amassed a 5.10 ERA/4.54 FIP across 358 innings.
Hard to believe that he’s 35. Time flies. I hope to see him finish his career on a high note though, whether that be here or in the NPB.
Lucky man. He was paid the full value of his 2020 contract—$22M—because he was cut by the Marlins prior to the 2020 season and prorated pay.
4.02 isn’t strong
It’s a solid 4.
Strong for a rookie playing a bunch of games against the Red Sox and Yankees (and Blue Jays at the time).
Strong in Camden Yards vs the AL East in 2012-2015.
105 ERA+ his rookie year and 110 for his first four years in the AL East. It’s quite strong.
He did great when you put into consideration the teams he was facing at the time. The O’s must have been happy with him to say the least.
Advanced analytics never liked him that much, but the Marlins bucked the trend based on ERA alone when they signed him to that deal. Wish him well on his new team.
Advanced analytics didn’t like him? I remember at the end of his time with the O’s he was among the league leaders in batted ball speed against (in that it was the lowest speed). He may not have struck out guys and pitched to contact, but it was not effective contact.
K/9, k/bb, avg velocity. Three key areas teams look at now.
Sayonara Weigh in, how bout, don’t call us we’ll call you. Or is it whinin?
That contract the Marlins signed him to was a head scratcher at the time and turned out terrible for them.
This came up on the Detroit Tigers feed. #notmytigers
Maybe TC knows something we don’t? Chris Ilitch relocated the team to Korea, Baltimore Colts style? I shouldn’t have taken that nap.
What an offseason, it feels like we’ve had more coverage of KBO, NPB and other international leagues even more so than MLB because so little is happening here.
Miss the days when he was pitching for the O’s
Me too, life was great during those years
I’m scared what 2022 has in store for us
That’ll be the year this all catches up
I can’t wait for 2022. If they stay on track, Adley, Grayson, DL, Diaz, Baumann, and others will be up. It’ll be a fun team to watch for sure
Hanshin’s road to third place continues unencumbered
Buck Showalter was masterful in how he managed him. I think that’s a big reason there weee issues in Miami. He rarely pitched every fifth day, it was always every sixth day. Or you can look up the metrics of him pitching over 100 pictures for a start as well. Buck sure did “like our guys!”