CPBL Foreign Players Updates Volume #426
CTBC Brothers News: Nick Nelson
On January 22, the CTBC Brothers announced the signing of 30-year-old American right-hander Nick Nelson for the 2026 CPBL season.
“He spent last season in Japan, so ideally he shouldn’t need much time to adjust to playing in Taiwan,” said the Brothers’ general manager.
Nick Nelson began his professional career in 2016 with the New York Yankees organisation and made his MLB debut in 2020. Over the next five seasons, he remained relatively active in the majors, pitching for both the Yankees and the Phillies and compiling a career 5.20 ERA and 1.55 WHIP across 114.1 innings. That said, the bulk of those innings came between 2020 and 2022. From 2023 to 2024, he logged only 10.2 innings in the majors and spent most of his time in Triple-A.
After leaving the MLB system, Nick Nelson took his talents to Japan and signed with the Hanshin Tigers of NPB. In 23 relief appearances, he posted a strong 1.93 ERA and 1.16 WHIP over 32.2 innings. Unfortunately, the Tigers decided not to renew his contract for the 2026 NPB season.
According to 2024 data from Baseball Savant, Nick Nelson throws a four-seam fastball (94.4 mph), sinker (93.6 mph), slider (86.9 mph), change-up (87.3 mph), and knuckleball (79.8 mph).
Here’s a fun fact that shows how small the baseball world can be. In Nick Nelson’s MLB debut on August 1, 2020, against the Boston Red Sox, he struck out Lin Tzu-Wei twice. Coincidentally, Lin is now playing in the CPBL for the Rakuten Monkeys.
With the signing of Nick Nelson, the CTBC Brothers currently have Mario Sanchez (2-year deal), José De Paula, Nivaldo Rodriguez and Kyle Tyler as their group of foreign players for the 2026 season.
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 2026 CPBL season.