Taiwanese pitcher Lin Yu-min on Thursday moved one step closer to an MLB contract after being invited to spring training by the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Lin was among 26 non-roster invitees announced by the Diamondbacks on the same day that the ballclub unveiled its 40-man spring training roster.
According to the Diamondbacks’ schedule, pitchers and catchers are to report on Feb. 14 before their full-squad workout starts on Feb. 19.
Photo: CNA
The invitation is Lin’s first call to spring training since signing for the Diamondbacks in 2022.
Known for his striking abilities, Lin began last season at High-A and was promoted to Double-A in July, finishing the year with 140 strikeouts over 121-1/3 innings.
The left-hander started in all of his 11 games with the Amarillo Sod Poodles, the Diamondbacks’ Double-A affiliate, recording a 5-2 record with a 4.28 ERA.
He struck out 64 over 61 innings pitched, while maintaining a .221 batting average against and a 1.23 walks and hits per innings pitched (WHIP).
The 20-year-old Lin is one of two Taiwanese pitchers who could potentially appear in the majors next season, along with the San Francisco Giants’ Teng Kai-wei, who spent the second half of last year in Triple-A with the Sacramento River Cats.
In the middle of last month, a report on the official MLB Web site titled “Here are the Top 10 LFP prospects for 2024” by Sam Dykstra referred to Lin as one to “keep an eye on,” although he did not make the top 10.
Despite standing only 180cm tall and his fastball averaging about 90mph (144.8kph), Lin’s “79-81mph changeup can be especially deadly, while his low-80s slider and mid-70s curve can also look like at least above-average pitches,” Dykstra wrote.
Although Taiwan included Lin on their roster for last year’s Asian Baseball Championship, the Diamondbacks declined to release him due to concerns about insufficient off-season rest.
If Lin takes to the mound this MLB season, he will become the youngest Taiwanese to ever play in the majors, breaking the record of 21 years, 354 days, the age left-handed pitcher Wang Wei-chung set on April 14, 2014, when he started for the Milwaukee Brewers against the St Louis Cardinals.
The most recent start by a Taiwanese pitcher in an MLB game dates back to Sept. 28, 2018, when Chen Wei-yin took the mound first up for the Miami Marlins against the Washington Nationals.
Former reality TV star Jessie Holmes on Tuesday night cruised to a repeat victory in the Iditarod, the about 1,609km sled dog race in Alaska. Holmes guided his dog team across the finish line in the old Gold Rush town of Nome, a Bering Sea coastal community. The race started on March 8 in Willow, a day after the ceremonial start in Anchorage. The course took dog teams and their mushers over two mountain ranges, along the frozen Yukon River and across the unpredictable Bering Sea ice. Holmes, a former cast member on the National Geographic reality show Life Below Zero, is the
Taiwanese boxer and Olympic gold medalist Lin Yu-ting has been approved to compete in the Asian Boxing Elite Championships, the Chinese Taipei Boxing Association (CTBA) said yesterday. The championships start on Saturday next week in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Lin became entangled in a gender controversy, despite the International Olympic Committee confirming her eligibility to compete as a female boxer. In August last year, World Boxing mandated a new regulation that required all athletes to undergo a polymerase chain reaction. genetic test to determine their sex at birth and their eligibility. Since the introduction of the test, Lin has missed several
The Taoyuan Pauian Pilots on Sunday fell short in their bid for a first East Asia Super League (EASL) title after a 90-81 loss to Japan’s Utsunomiya Brex in Macau. The defeat marked the second straight year the defending P.League+ champions missed out on the EASL crown, but they remain the first team to reach back-to-back championship games in the league’s three-year history. The outcome was largely decided by long-range shooting. The Pilots struggled from beyond the arc, hitting just five of 20 attempts, while the Brex converted 19 three-pointers, shooting 46.3 percent from long range. Seven of the eight Brex players
ONE MORE CHANCE: While North Korea denied Taiwan in Australia, Taiwan, who last played in the World Cup in 1991, could still qualify via inter-confederation playoffs Taiwan yesterday lost 4-0 to a dominant North Korea in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup playoffs, closing off an avenue to qualify for the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Hong Song-ok scored a hat-trick in the match to determine the last of the confederation’s qualifiers from the tournament for next year’s World Cup in Brazil. With their victory over Taiwan, North Korea has qualified for the first time since a doping saga in 2011 led to their long absence from top-tier international tournaments. Angela Beard and Jaclyn Sawicki scored in a six-minute span to help the Philippines secure a World Cup spot with a
RSS