The Chinese Professional Baseball League’s (CPBL) Fubon Guardians have signed 30-year-old Dominican infielder Carlos Franco from the independent Atlantic League of Professional Baseball’s (ALPB) York Revolution.
The signing of Franco, the ALPB’s Player of the Month for June, comes two days after Guardians pitcher and the CPBL’s longest-serving import player Mike Loree announced his retirement.
According to a post on the Guardians’ Facebook page on Monday, Franco is slated to arrive in the first half of September, the same month that the 37-year-old Loree plans to call time on his CPBL career with a final outing for the Guardians at Xinzhuang Baseball Stadium on Sept. 2.
Franco posted a .372 batting average in 24 games in June for the Revolution, driving in a league-best 29 runs and knocking out nine home runs for the Pennsylvania-based side
A former prospect in the Atlanta Braves minor league system, Franco reached as high as Triple-A, recording 109 hits and 16 home runs over 119 appearances for the Gwinnett Stripers in 2018, the Guardians said in a statement.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel