Japanese Baseball Cards: Wei-Yin Chen

Friday, March 21, 2025

Wei-Yin Chen

Taiwanese pitcher Wei-Yin Chen announced his retirement a few weeks back (H/T NPB on reddit). You'd be forgiven for thinking he had already retired as it's been three years since his last appearance in NPB and five since his last one in MLB.

Chen had signed with the Chunichi Dragons as an 18 year old prior to the 2004 season. He had his first taste of ichi-gun in 2005, posting an ERA of 6.05 in ten games. He spent all of 2006 on the farm and had some elbow and ligament injuries that ultimately caused him to need Tommy John surgery. The Dragons demoted him to the ikusei roster for 2007 while he rehabbed but moved him back to the 70 man roster for 2008.

He started 2008 in the bullpen with the top team but by mid-season, he was in the starting rotation. He'd spend the next three seasons as a mainstay of the Dragons starting rotation, going 8-4 in 2009, 13-10 in 2010 and 8-10 in 2011. He led the Central League with an ERA of 1.54 in 2009. He pitched for the Dragons in losing efforts in both the 2010 and 2011 Nippon Series.

He left Chunichi and Japan after the 2011 season, heading to the US and the Baltimore Orioles. He spent four pretty good seasons in Charm City before moving on to the Marlins for 2016. He was somewhat less successful in Miami, missing some time due to some injuries. The Marlins released him with a year left on his contract after the 2019 season and he signed with the Mariners in early 2020. He pitched poorly in a couple exhibition games and, with the season in limbo due to COVID, ultimately got released in June, freeing him up to return to NPB.

He signed with the Chiba Lotte Marines and debuted with the team in mid-October. He made four starts and pitched pretty well, posting an ERA of 2.42 in 26 innings. The Marines, however, only scored a single run in his four starts, leaving him saddled with an 0-3 record. He started Game 2 of the Final (and only) Stage of the Climax Series against the Hawks and got lit up, giving up five runs on three home runs (two by Akira Nakamura and one by Nobuhiro Matsuda). He took the loss in the 6-4 defeat that put the Hawks into the Nippon Series for the fourth straight year.

Within a month of the Marines elimination, he left the team as a free agent and signed with the Hanshin Tigers. He struggled to stay healthy, making only two appearances with the top team in 2021 and a total of 13 appearances on the farm team in 2021 and 2022. He was released mid-way through the 2022 season and returned to Taiwan. He had surgery on his arm and spent 2023 rehabbing on his own. He returned to action last year with the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League, going 5-5 with an ERA of 6.37 in 17 starts.

He pitched for the Taiwan Olympic team in both the 2004 Athens games and the 2008 Beijing games.

His first baseball card was in the 2004 BBM Dragons set (#D34). He appeared in the Dragons team sets in three of the next four years, missing only 2007 since he was a development player that season. He appeared in a couple of Konami's sets in 2008 and made his BBM and Calbee flagship debuts in 2009. Here's a handful of his cards: