Foreign baseball players in Taiwan who have met certain conditions will be allowed to enter the Chinese Professional Baseball League’s (CPBL) mid-season draft as domestic picks from next year.
International students who have studied for at least three years at a high school in a Taiwan school or four consecutive years at a university in the country, as well as international baseball players who have lived in Taiwan for over five years and played three years for a domestic semi-professional team will now be eligible to enter the CPBL draft as homegrown players.
Japanese pitcher Masaki Takashio, who is undergoing naturalization and is part of Taiwan’s 40-man training roster for the upcoming Asian Baseball Championship, is one of several prospects who will be able to make use of the new regulations.
The next Asian Baseball Championship will be held March 20-28 in Taichung, where Taiwan will take the field as defending champions.
Takashio has been playing for a semi-professional team in Taiwan since 2017 and has lived in Taiwan for five years.
The 32-year-old right-hander, who plays for the ANYO Fresh baseball team, posted an ERA (earned run average) of 3 and recorded a total of 16 strikeouts in 21 innings over three games in the 2021 season of Taiwan’s semi-professional Popcorn League.
Meanwhile, CPBL commissioner Tsai Chi-Chang (???) said the draft rules were based on the league having four teams, but that since the league now had five teams — with the possibility of six in the future — new regulations were being worked on to accommodate a draft regardless of the number of teams.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel