Cubs Reportedly Interested in Jyun-Yue Tseng, Taiwan’s Top Reliever
This didn’t seem like much of a story at first, but it’s grown in my estimation now that the Cubs may be involved. Taiwanese reliever Jyun-Yue Tseng filed for free agency a few days ago, and the Merit Times reported that an NL Central team had approached the righty about a deal. That information was relayed by the CPBL Stats X account, which subsequently shared that CPBL (Chinese Professional Baseball League, the top tier in Taiwan) columnist Vincent Liao revealed that the Cubs were that team.
The 24-year-old Tseng had a 1.57 ERA with 25 saves, 65 strikeouts, and just 13 walks over 51.4 innings for the Fubon Guardians this past season. Over six seasons with the Guardians, he has a 2.36 ERA with 342 strikeouts and 91 walks in just over 240 innings. Not bad. Also not against the highest level of international competition, which is why any deal would likely be of the minor league variety.
That makes sense for two reasons, the first of which is that making the jump from the CPBL to MLB would be quite difficult. The bigger reason is that the minor league season will not be impacted by a lockout, which means Tseng could acclimate himself to the American game in spring training and then with the appropriate affiliate club(s) even if the Cubs themselves aren’t able to play.
The stuff appears to be pretty good by any measure, with a fastball that approaches 98 mph, a 90 mph splitter, and an 87 mph slider. Beyond the fact that he’s effectively pitching in the minors already, one big knock on Tseng is his small stature. At only 5-foot-8, he could be dismissed by some clubs as being too short to pitch effectively in MLB. But as we saw with the Brewers, there may be merit in going against the grain with short kings.
And for what it’s worth, Tseng isn’t the only diminutive hurler in whom the Cubs should have interest. We have previously explored the possibility of them pursuing Japanese flamethrower Kaima Taira, who is the same height with even louder stuff. Perhaps the Cubs could benefit from being more like the Brewers, or maybe this would be closer to what the Rays have long done in terms of exploiting outlier pitching traits.
To that end, we must acknowledge the Cubs’ recent addition of Steve Miller as their VP of international scouting. Miller had served in a similar role for the Rays and was certainly already familiar with Tseng and Taira, though it’s likely the club’s interest began even before he was hired. Rather than being a direct result of Miller’s hiring, this interest in non-traditional pitching targets seems to be a product of the organization’s shifting philosophies.
Rather than playing it safe and seeking out high floors with limited ceilings, the Cubs have begun taking bigger risks with their evaluation and development of pitchers. That’s a must when it comes to producing the kind of velocity and bat-missing stuff that they’ve sorely lacked over the last several years. They will probably need to pay a premium for it in free agency for immediate impact, as will be the case with Taima or perhaps lefty Adrain Morejon, but Tseng represents a little less risk due to a presumably much lower price tag.
That’s the kind of needle-threading I’d like to see from Jed Hoyer after years of playing it far too safe to yield big results.
