OC Register: Taiwanese baseball might have found its pioneer in Red Sox’s Tzu-Wei Lin

[AngelsWin.com]

ANAHEIM — When the Boston Red Sox signed Tzu-Wei Lin, an 18-year-old infielder from Taiwan, he immediately began taking an English class and was assigned an interpreter, Mickey Jiang. A couple years ago, still in the minor leagues, Lin said Jiang offered some unusual advice: stop using me.

“Don’t be by yourself,” Lin said. “You have to play with your teammates. Last year I tried better. I was more comfortable.”

Lin is 24 now. He is married with a child. His professional baseball career is about six years old, almost all of it spent on the east coast of the United States – 12 time zones away from Kaohsiung City, as far from home as a man can be.

Wednesday, Lin conducted an entire interview in English for what he said was the first time. He answered questions for more than 17 minutes.

It’s not hard to imagine how, in some alternate timeline, a Taiwanese-born position player could have become a household name in the U.S. years ago. In that case, by now it would take more than one hand to count the number of Taiwanese-born players active in MLB.

Yet here we are. Lin has spent a mere eight weeks in a Red Sox uniform. As of Tuesday he needed only 14 hits to become the all-time hits leader for a Taiwanese player. Only Chin-Lung Hu is ahead of him on a remarkably short list.

Hu played from 2007-11, mostly for the Dodgers. He hit well enough to become the subject of a famous meme – “Hu’s on first” – and that remains his biggest claim to fame in the United States. He did not hit well enough to become an everyday player.

Only two other Taiwanese-born position players, Che-Hsuan Lin and Chin-Feng Chen, have reached the majors at all. Why?

BROKEN PIPELINE

The answer isn’t a simple matter of talent. Taiwanese teams have won 17 Little League World Series championships, more than any foreign country. The first was in 1969. Many believed the first Tzu-Wei Lin would have arrived years ago. The fact that he did not points to a break in the developmental pipeline – specifically in the teenage years.

“There has to be a place to play after (Little League),” said Fred Claire, the former Dodgers general manager. “There wasn’t any high school or college (development) that enabled them to be ready to play in Japan or other places.”

Pro baseball has existed continuously in some form in Taiwan since 1996. Along with the usual growing pains, the Chinese Professional Baseball League has suffered from game-fixing scandals throughout that time. It has lagged behind the organized pro leagues in Japan and South Korea as a development vehicle.

Claire once signed pitchers Hideo Nomo and Chan Ho Park, turning each into a pioneer. To this day Claire remembers the fawning scouting reports he received on the Korean-born Park, who debuted in 1994. He vividly recalled the surprise phone call from Arn Tellem alerting him to the possibility of signing Nomo, who was an established pitcher in Japan before his Dodgers debut in 1995. Claire said he never had the same reaction to a scouting report from Taiwan.

Including Claire, I reached out to 11 current or former major league executives for this story. None have personally scouted in Taiwan. This also suggests a break in the pipeline. As baseball operations departments expand, it’s less necessary for a top executive to travel that far to see a player. But if there is a large enough pool of talent or even one elite prospect – Shohei Ohtani comes to mind – it’s not uncommon.

Starting with Claire, the Dodgers tried to make it work. They scouted Taiwan with the same scrutiny as Japan and South Korea. Between 1999 and 2003 they signed three of the first five Taiwanese players to reach MLB. One, pitcher Hung-Chih Kuo, remains the only Taiwanese-born player to make a major league All-Star team.

For all his success, Kuo never had a “mania” attached to his name. His status as a pioneer never rivaled that of Nomo or Park. His talent didn’t match theirs, and neither did his hype. Lin’s favorite player growing up?

“Ichiro Suzuki,” he said. “He got power but he doesn’t want to use it. He just want to get on base. Me too. I just want to get on base.”

‘GOOD FEEL FOR THE GAME’

At 5-foot-9, Lin doesn’t cut a superstar’s frame. Despite his torrid start to the season – he was batting .500 when the Red Sox opened a three-game series in Anaheim on Tuesday – his ceiling for achievement might not be that of an All-Star. Still, those close to him in Boston describe a player whose fundamentals are so solid, his floor could keep him in the major leagues for years.

That is somewhat remarkable in itself. Unlike Ohtani – again, the extreme example – Lin’s physical tools would not have been enough to overcome subpar coaching. But it appears that Lin was very well-coached as a teenager. The Yankees tried to sign him at 16, two years before Lin was set to graduate high school.

Lin said he wanted to leave, and the Yankees offered $305,000. But his desire was neutered by pressure from teachers and coaches who urged him to finish high school.

“They told me don’t go because it’s not good for me,” Lin said. “I’m 16. I have to finish high school. Maybe more money’s coming. You never know what team may want you.”

Boston saw enough in Lin to sign him to a $2 million bonus.

One evaluator who saw Lin shortly after his arrival as an 18-year-old remembered seeing a player who “looked raw, physically immature, but with good feel for the game on both sides of the ball.” His main shortcomings were size and strength.

Once his physical maturity came around, Red Sox general manager Dave Dombrowski said, Lin proved quickly that he fit in. He could play four positions well. And his newfound willingness to speak English paid off.

“He’s the funniest guy – really quiet, so then when he talks you’re not expecting it,” Red Sox coach Tim Hyers said. “He’ll say a one-liner.”

THE MESSAGE

Lin said his older brothers and cousins played baseball, too. That got him started as a 9-year-old. However, no one in his family tried to make it outside of Taiwan. Even after he signed with Boston, Lin didn’t believe he would reach the majors.

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No pioneer ever had it easy. But then, why has it taken so long for the long-awaited Taiwanese breakthrough in the U.S.?

“Language and life is different,” Lin said. “Food. For me, the language is hard. Just a couple years ago I thought I couldn’t do it because it’s tough, it’s hard in my life.”

Anyone with a map can see that Taiwan is an island a world away, but sometimes the simplest explanation is also the most accurate.

Lin doesn’t think of himself as a pioneer, at least not yet. Still, he doesn’t want to go quietly into history. He doesn’t want to be a singular figure in the baseball history of Taiwan.

“I just want to tell the young guys: you guys can do it,” he said.

In English.

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