The Fubon Guardians have signed US Minor League Baseball southpaw pitcher Matthew Kent for this season, the CPBL club announced on Friday.
Kent, in his first overseas signing, is one of the club’s four international players and is expected to report for spring training early next month, the Guardians said in a statement.
The 30-year-old was a 13th-round pick by the Boston Red Sox in the 2015 Major League Baseball (MLB) draft out of Texas A&M University, and then spent every season before last year playing in the organization’s minor league teams.
Kent acted primarily as a starter before transitioning to more of a reliever in 2021, in what was his third consecutive season splitting time between Triple-A and Double-A.
Last year, Kent was signed by the Miami Marlins in a minor league deal, and spent the season with the team’s Triple-A affiliate Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, where he started 25 games out of 28, pitching 144.1 innings to post a 9-11 record and a 4.99 earned run average (ERA).
In his seven seasons in the minor league, Kent pocketed a 57-48 card and a 4.11 ERA.
Also on Friday, the Guardians said that they have re-signed former MLB pitcher Tanner Anderson for the upcoming season.
The 29-year-old right-hander arrived in Taiwan mid-season in July last year to join the Guardians. In his CPBL debut last season, he started six games in the league’s majors to record a 1-1 card, 1.72 ERA and 1.18 walks plus hits per inning pitched over 31.1 innings.
Anderson made his MLB debut for the Pittsburgh Pirates in July 2018, going 1-0 with a 6.35 ERA in six appearances before he was sent to the Oakland Athletics in 2019.
The New Taipei City-based Guardians finished last in the five-team league last season.
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