CPBL Foreign Players Updates Volume #239
Rakuten Monkeys News: Ricardo Pinto
On July 28, the Rakuten Monkeys announced the signing of 28-year-old Venezuelan right-hander Ricardo Pinto. According to the team, Pinto is set to arrive in Taiwan around mid-August.
“Our scouting department has been tracking Ricardo Pinto for about two or three years,” said the Monkeys’ general manager. “He has a decent fastball (94-95mph) with movement, and we hope Pinto would be ready to pitch in late August.”
Richardo Pinto began his professional career with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2012 and made his MLB debut in 2017. Over his two brief seasons (2017 and 2019) in MLB, he compiled an 8.44 ERA over 32 innings of work.
In 2020, he joined the SK Wyverns of the KBO. However, there seem to be some adjustment problems, leading to severe command issues. In over 162 innings, Richardo Pinto issued 90 walks. He finished his 2020 KBO season with a 6.16 ERA and 1.77 WHIP.
After the KBO, Richardo Pinto signed a minor league deal with the Detroit Tigers and returned to the MLB system. Leading up to the signing with the Rakuten Monkeys, Pinto posted a 3.58 ERA and 1.43 WHIP over 32.2 innings with the Tigers’ Triple-A team.
Further Readings
Foreign players come and goes, therefore we compiled a foreign players tracker to keep track of all the foreign players signing for the 2022 CPBL season.
Pinto was pretty awful in the KBO, but has pitched pretty well in AAA the last year and a half. We’ll see what he can do in Taiwan.