CPBL Foreign Players Updates Volume #311
CTBC Brothers News: Daniel Mengden
On January 17, the CTBC Brothers announced the signing of 30-year-old American right-hander Daniel Mengden. According to the team, Mengden is set to join the spring training at the end of January.
Daniel Mengden started his professional career in 2014, and it did not take long for him to make it to MLB. From 2016 to 2020, he was active on the Oakland Athletics roster and logged 302.2 innings. His most notable season was probably in 2018, where he posted a 4.05 ERA and 1.11 WHIP across 115.2 innings.
In 2021, Daniel Mengden left the MLB system and signed a deal with the KIA Tigers of the KBO. During his time in Korea, Mengden registered a 3.60 ERA and 1.20 WHIP over 120 innings.
Daniel Mengden returned to the MLB system in 2022 and joined the Kansas City Royals. Although he spent the majority of the season in Triple-A, he eventually received the call-up and wound up pitching seven innings in MLB. In over six big league seasons since 2020, Mengden compiled a 4.64 ERA and 1.31 WHIP over 309.2 innings.
In 2023, Daniel Mengden split his time between the Royals and Nationals Triple-A teams. He finished the 2023 Triple-A season with a disappointing 7.25 ERA and 1.97 WHIP over 49.2 innings.
As of today, the CTBC Brothers have Shawn Morimando, José De Paula, Kirk McCarty and Daniel Mengden as their foreign players for the 2024 CPBL season.
Given Taiwan’s hot and humid weather, it is still unclear at this stage whether Daniel Mengden will rock his gentlemanly moustache in the CPBL. But hey, a boy can only dream, right?
Further Readings
Foreign players come and go. Therefore, we have compiled a tracker to monitor all foreign player signings for the 2024 CPBL season.
Looks like the Brothers will have good pitching, unless they get hit with the injury bug. McCarty in particular is the right age and pitched well last year in the KBO.
Mengden pitched poorly in AAA last year at age 30 after strong seasons in 2021 and 2022. That is probably why he was available to sign with the Brothers. If his arm is healthy, he’s still a good bet for a CPBL team.
Great rotation. The Brothers are serious about winning this season. I think they are also trying to re-sign Eric Stout as well.
I like Eric Stout, and I like Pedro Fernandez whom the Monkeys just signed.
Mengden is at an age and coming off a poor AAA season where he was probably signed for a typical CPBL starting salary but I would think McCarty got more. McCarty should have been able to get an MLB minor league contract that paid him $100K for minor league service time.
I’m guessing that both McCarty and Mengden are hoping that strong CPBL performance will get them another shot at KBO money — particularly McCarty, since like Brandon Waddell last year, he’s young enough to stick in the KBO for multiple seasons if he makes it back.
I’m still waiting to see who the last pitcher to be signed by the KBO’s Kia Tigers will be. It is certainly possible that David Buchanan or Eric Jokisch would be willing to sign with a CPBL team the way that Jake Brigham did in 2021. Shaun Anderson, Adam Plutko and Dan Straily are also possibilities.
My guess the reason why the KBO teams decided not to re-sign McCarty and Megden is probably due to they didn’t eat enough innings.