Asian Teams Jump on Free Agent Market
Sunday, December 27th, 2020In the NPB, the KBO and the CPBL free agency is not as prevalent among their domestic market. The biggest free agents are the foreign players and the Asian teams are quickly scooping up their quota of signing foreign players. In the CPBL (China Professional Baseball League) each team is allowed three foreign players (with the exception of the expansion team Dragons, who can sign five foreign players, with four playing on the CPBL team). The expansion team Wei Chua Dragons signed five foreign players to contracts, giving each team at least three foreign players (four for the Dragons) to play on their first team.
If a team signs more than three foreign players (or four for the Dragons), only three can appear on the CPBL roster. The extra players will play on the equivalent of the minor league team. For the most part, the CPBL sign starting pitchers to fill their foreign roster spots. In myworld’s opinion, this reliance on foreign pitchers stagnates the growth of their domestic pitchers. Myworld would like to see them go the KBO route, three foreign players, but a maximum of two pitchers or two position players.
Below are the names of the foreign players signed by each of the five teams. This does not prevent these teams from signing more players. You can go to CBPLstats.com for the list.
Uni Lions
Tim Melville, Brock Dykxhoorn, Teddy Stankiewicz and Felix Doubront
China Trust Brothers
Mitch Lively, Jose De Paula and Onelki Garcia
Rakuten Monkeys
Ryan Bollinger, Aaron Wilkerson (pitcher) and Dillon Overton,
Fubon Guardians
Henry Sosa, Mike Loree, Manny Banuelos and Hector Noesi
Wei Chun Dragons
Jake Brigham, Drew Gagon, Junichi Tazawa, Rosell Herrera and Bryan Woodall