CPBL Foreign Players Updates Volume #374
CTBC Brothers News: Humberto Castellanos
Back on January 3, CPBL broadcaster Wang Yi-Hsuan revealed on his social media that the CTBC Brothers had reached an agreement with a new foreign pitcher. This yet-to-be-named pitcher was a young sidearmer who spent 2024 in Triple-A and had prior MLB experience.
At the time, SET News reported that the mystery new foreign pitcher was Humberto Castellanos from the Arizona Diamondbacks system, but the Brothers declined to comment on the rumour.
Fast forward to February 6, the CTBC Brothers officially announced the signing of 26-year-old Mexican right-hander Humberto Castellanos for the 2025 season.
We look forward to Humberto Castellanos joining the team to further enhance internal competition among foreign players and work towards our goal of winning back-to-back championships,” said the Brothers’ general manager.
As per Strikeout, a social media covering Mexican baseball news, the CTBC Brothers reportedly signed Humberto Castellanos to a 650,000 USD deal with additional performance incentives, and the total amount could potentially reach $750,000.
Humberto Castellanos began his professional career in the Houston Astros system in 2016, and after a few seasons in the minor leagues, he made his MLB debut in 2020. For the next three seasons (2020-22), he was relatively active in the big league, pitching for the Astros and Diamondbacks organisations, registering a total of 100.2 innings.
Unfortunately, his 2022 campaign was cut short midseason as he suffered a season-ending elbow injury which required Tommy John surgery. He finished his 2022 season with a 5.68 ERA and 44.1 innings across 11 games.
After spending the entire 2023 season in rehabilitation, Humberto Castellanos returned to the mound healthier than ever. He began the 2024 season in Triple-A and even earned a midseason call-up back to MLB.
In 2024, he posted a solid 3.81 ERA and 1.18 WHIP over 104 innings as a starting pitcher in Triple-A, where the league’s average ERA was 5.27. During his two-month stay in MLB, he compiled a 5.23 ERA and 1.45 WHIP over 10.1 innings.
With the signing of Humberto Castellanos, the the CTBC Brothers now have Kirk McCarty, José De Paula and Daniel Mengden as their foreign players. As per the Brothers’ GM, they are planning to sign one more foreign pitcher to begin the 2025 season.
Humberto Castellanos‘ Arsenal
According to data from Baseball Savant, Humberto Castellanos has a five-pitch repertoire. He primarily uses his sinker and curveball against right-handed batters, while relying more on his cutter, four-seamer, and changeup against lefties.
- Sinker: 90.6 mph (146 kph)
- Cutter: 87.1 mph (140 kph)
- 4-Seam Fastball: 89.5 mph (144 kph)
- Curveball: 78.2 mph (126 kph)
- Changeup: 85.2 mph (137 kph)
Further Readings
Foreign players come and go. Therefore, we have compiled a foreign player tracker, and I’ll be updating that list regularly to keep pace with the ever-changing roster shuffle throughout the 2025 CPBL season.
This looks like a good signing to me. AAA Reno is one of the toughest places to pitch anywhere, which is probably part of the reason he went 9-1 in spite of a seemingly high 3.81 ERA. And he’s only 27 years old this year.
Any recent rumors on Nivaldo Rodriguez or Mario Sanchez? I saw something on Reddit that Fubon may have offered Rodriguez a $600,000 contract, but that he is apparently playing hard to get.
Nothing new at the moment. Yeah, that Guardians offered him $600K was the latest news about Nivaldo Rodriguez. I guess this is like a game of chicken for both parities.