CPBL Foreign Players Updates Volume #315
Rakuten Monkeys News: Manny Bañuelos
On January 23, the Rakuten Monkeys announced the signing of Manny Bañuelos. After a little detour around the world, the 32-year-old Mexican left-hander will return to Taiwan again for his third CPBL season.
Manny Bañuelos began his professional career with the New York Yankees system in 2008. He eventually made it to MLB in 2015 with the Braves and in 2019 as a member of the White Sox. In those two MLB seasons, he logged a 6.31 ERA over 77 innings of work.
In 2020, due to the cancellation of the minor league season caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Manny Bañuelos left the MLB system and came to Taiwan to play for the Fubon Guardians.
During his two seasons in the CPBL, Manny Bañuelos posted a solid 2.76 ERA and 1.28 WHIP across 19 games and 101.2 innings. Although he is not known for his ability to pitch deep into the games, he compensated for that by having a high strikeout rate of 28.3%.
In 2022, Manny Bañuelos returned to the MLB system by signing a minor league deal with the Yankees and pitched his way to the big league. He registered a 4.39 ERA and 1.29 WHIP across 41 innings for the Yankees and the Pirates that year.
Manny Bañuelos left the MLB system once again to pitch in Asia in 2023. This time, he was heading to Japan to play for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of NPB. His second tour of Asia did not quite pan out, with him only pitching 0.2 innings in the first team, where he gave up 6 earned runs. After that, he was demoted to the Eagles farm team for the rest of the 2023 season.
Prior to his signing with the Rakuten Monkeys, Manny Bañuelos was active in the Mexican Winter League. In over 35 innings, he recorded a 2.57 ERA and 1.22 WHIP.
As of today, the Rakuten Monkeys have Shunsuke Suzuki, Pedro Fernández and Manny Bañuelos as their foreign players for the 2024 CPBL season. The Monkeys’ general manager revealed they are in the process of signing another foreign pitcher. The team’s priority is to sign a starting pitcher.
Further Readings
Foreign players come and go. Therefore, we have compiled a tracker to monitor all foreign player signings for the 2024 CPBL season.