CPBL Foreign Players Updates Volume #312
Rakuten Monkeys News: Pedro Fernández
On January 18, the Rakuten Monkeys announced the re-signing of Pedro Fernández for the 2024 CPBL season. The 29-year-old Dominican right-hander will return to Taiwan for his second CPBL season.
“I am thrilled to return to the Rakuten Monkeys for another season. I hope our team can maintain our competitiveness this year and make it to the playoff again,” said Pedro Fernández via video message.
2023 #CPBL Playoff Series G1
Rakuten Monkeys’ Pedro Fernández allowed 2 runs and struck out 8 over 8 solid innings. pic.twitter.com/hkS1cbiO3d
— CPBL STATS 🪬🔮 (@GOCPBL) October 28, 2023
Pedro Fernández, the 29-year-old Dominican right-hander, joined the Monkeys in August 2023 as a mid-season signing. In just eight starts, he quickly established himself as the ace of the team with his dominating performance with a solid 2.09 ERA and 1.01 WHIP across 51.2 innings.
During the postseason, Pedro Fernández started three games for the Monkeys, where he only allowed 3 earned runs and struck out 28 over 21 innings.
- Playoff Series G1 – 8IP, 1ER, 8K, 1BB
- Taiwan Series G1 – 5IP, 2ER, 7K, 2BB
- Taiwan Series G5 – 8IP, 0ER, 13K, 1BB
As of today, the Rakuten Monkeys have Shunsuke Suzuki and Pedro Fernández as their foreign players for the 2024 CPBL season. There are rumours the Monkeys are currently in talks with Manny Bañuelos, but the team did not elaborate further on this rumour.
2023 #CPBL Taiwan Series G5
Rakuten Monkeys’ Pedro Fernández delivers a stellar performance, pitching 8 scoreless innings with an impressive 13 strikeouts, tying the Taiwan Series single-game strikeout record. pic.twitter.com/bh74VgjC3s
— CPBL STATS 🪬🔮 (@GOCPBL) November 10, 2023
Further Readings
Foreign players come and go. Therefore, we have compiled a tracker to monitor all foreign player signings for the 2024 CPBL season.
Would like to know more about the Manny Banielos contract, so far reportedly one year with option. Did he get a full year deal?
The Monkeys have no publicly announce the signing of Manny Bañuelos yet, that’s why I haven’t tweet or blog about it. Seems a bit weird that the Monkeys are offering full-year deal with option for 2025. But I’m sure Manny Bañuelos will do well in Taiwan, especially with that de-juiced ball.
A full year deal may have been necessary to get Banuelos to forgo playing in Mexico next summer. Mexican players typically seem to prefer playing at home instead of Taiwan for a little more money.
I guess there’s that home / familiar factor? And more exposure to scouts in the MLB system?
Is Hagens back? Thought he was
The Monkeys have decided not to bring him back for the 2024 season. Hagens could potentially look at the TSG Hawks, because they said they need a foreign reliever.