Moves Made and Progress?

On Monday, the Baltimore Orioles signed another pitcher as they signed left-hander Wei-yin Chen from Taiwan.

Here’s on the signing from the Orioles.com:

Chen, 26, spent the last four years with the Chunichi Dragons of Japan's Central League. He went 38-30 with a 2.48 ERA in 117 games, 88 of them starts. Chen had a 2.68 ERA in 25 appearances last season. He will be the first Taiwanese-born player in Orioles history.

"Chen works off of a 92-94 mph fastball and he uses a hard, slurve-like breaking ball as an out pitch," Orioles executive vice president of baseball operations Dan Duquette said. "He has exceptional command and we like the quality of his pitches to help our team."

Chen had a career-high 13 wins in 27 starts, striking out 153 in 188 innings, in 2019. He led the Central League with a 1.54 ERA, 0.93 WHIP and four shutouts in 164 innings in 2009.

He was a member of the Chinese Taipei national baseball team in the 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing Olympics. He went 1-0 in two starts in the 2008 Games, tossing seven shutout innings in a 5-0 win over the Netherlands.

They have been looking to sign him throughout the winter, and Chen agreed to a 3-year pact. Dan Duquette said that the Orioles were going to make it a mandate to start looking at the international markets, and sure enough they have.

Time will tell how all the international efforts by the Orioles show in the win column. While I do like the fact the Duquette is thinking somewhat outside the box, the team should have focused more on major league veterans with experience and at least a ‘name’ player.

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