CPBL Foreign Players Updates Volume #365
TSG Hawks News: Eric Stout
On January 11, Nello Gamberdino of NPG Sports revealed that the TSG Hawks have signed Eric Stout for the 2025 CPBL season. The 31-year-old American left-hander will return for his third season in Taiwan, having previously pitched for the CTBC Brothers in 2023 and 2024.
According to ETtoday, the contract’s total value is reportedly around 400,000 USD. However, the Hawks’ general manager declined to comment on this figure.
CTBC Brothers’ Eric Stout allowed 1 run and struck out 9 over 6 innings. Note: The radar gun at the Taipei from last night was probably around 10 kph slower. #CPBL pic.twitter.com/BUnzOlJ1XB
— CPBL STATS 🪬🔮 (@GOCPBL) April 6, 2024
Eric Stout spent the first half of the 2024 season with the CTBC Brothers in the CPBL. In 20 games, he posted a solid 2.77 ERA and 1.16 WHIP over 113.2 innings. His impressive 23.5 K% and 23.9 Whiff% placed him among the top percentile of CPBL starting pitchers.
As a result of his strong CPBL performance, as expected, the KBO came calling in mid-season. On August 27, the CTBC Brothers announced that the KIA Tigers had purchased Eric Stout’s contract.
Unfortunately, Eric Stout’s time in the KBO was not smooth sailing. In his fourth start, he sustained a leg injury on the mound after throwing a pitch and was placed on the injured list. He ended his 2024 KBO season with a 5.06 ERA and 1.38 WHIP across 16 innings.
Although Eric Stout has been quite dominating in the past two seasons, especially with that killer sweeper of his, fans began to notice that Stout tends to run out of gas when he gets to the end of the season. It would be very interesting to see how he adjusts to playing in southern Taiwan, which is hotter and more humid.
With the signing of Eric Stout, the TSG Hawks now have Spenser Watkins, Onodera Kento, Yoshida Kazumasa, Steven Moya, and Bradin Hagens as their foreign players.
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.