CPBL Foreign Players Updates Volume #106
Chinatrust Brothers News: Jose de Paula
On January 3, Mexican media broke the news that a Taiwanese team have signed left-hander Jose de Paula out of the Dominican Winter League (LIDOM).
At this stage, there are no official news regarding the name of this CPBL team. However, when looking at the public record on Taiwan’s Ministry of Labor website, it suggested it could be the Chinatrust Brothers, as they filed for a foreigner work permit on January 2.
On January 6, the Chinatrust Brothers confirmed the signing of Jose de Paula. According to the Brothers, they are likely to use Jose de Paula as a reliever if right-hander Cheng Kai-Wen is able to return to the starting rotation.
31-year-old Jose de Paula spent 2007 to 2015 in the minor league with the Padres, Giants and the Yankees organisation. He eventually had his cup of tea in the MLB with the New York Yankees where he pitched 3.1 innings in 2015.
After leaving the MLB system, Jose de Paula continues to pitch in the Mexican League (LMB) and the Dominican Winter League (LIDOM).
In 2019, he posted a combined record of 4.68 ERA and 1.61 WHIP across 90.1 innings in Mexico. Before his signing with the Chinatrust Brothers, De Paula went 3.26 ERA, 1.30 WHIP over 49.2 innings in the Dominican Winter League.
Further Readings
Foreign players come and goes, therefore we compiled a foreign players tracker to keep track of all the foreign players signing for the 2020 CPBL season.
This is a good signing for the Brothers. Jose DePaula was a fairly obvious CPBL candidate if he was willing to give up pitching a full Dominican Winter League season each year. I had guessed that DePaula and Mexican League Ace Cesar Valdez would do the safe thing and continue to pitch in the Mexican League during the summer and home in the Dominican Republic in the Winter. I assume that the CPBL offer was good enough to give it a try.
I wonder why no one want to give Cesar Valdez another shot. Guys been pitching well after his short stint with the Lamigo Monkeys a few years ago.