CPBL Foreign Players Updates Volume #323
Wei Chuan Dragons News: Rio Gomez
On February 6, the Wei Chuan Dragons announced the signing of 29-year-old left-hander Rio Gomez, the son of the late ESPN reporter Pedro Gomez.
Rio Gomez began his professional career with the Boston Red Sox system in 2017 and peaked at the Triple-A level. In the 2023 Triple-A season, he posted a 4.45 ERA and 1.62 WHIP over 56.2 innings. Out of the 16 games he appeared in, he started 12 of them.
Prior to his signing with the Dragons, Rio Gomez was active in the Dominican Winter League. In 8.1 innings of work, he logged a 3.24 ERA and 1.68 WHIP.
It is worth noting that Rio Gomez represented his mother’s home country, Colombia, in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. He pitched 1.1 scoreless innings with 2 strikeouts as a reliever against Canada.
According to the scouting report compiled by Sox Prospects, Rio Gomez throws a fastball (88-90 mph), slider (80-82 mph) and changeup (83-84 mph). He hides the ball very well and has a compact delivery. Although Gomez does not have a standout pitch, he compensates for that with his ability to throw strikes.
As of today, the Wei Chuan Dragons currently have Jasier Herrera, Bryan Woodall, Drew Gagnon, Tyler Eppler and Rio Gomez as their foreign players for the 2024 season.
Further Readings
Foreign players come and go. Therefore, we have compiled a tracker to monitor all foreign player signings for the 2024 CPBL season.
I like this signing. Gomez is under age 30, and he pitched pretty well in AAA last year. His ERA was the third best of the eleven pitchers to throw at least 50 innings last year.
I feel the Dragons has figured out how to pick foreign pitchers in the CPBL. Would be interesting to see how Rio Gomez will perform in Taiwan, since he doesn’t throw particularly hard. There were also some successful cases last season with pitchers that solely relied on their command.
Also seems clear that the Dragons decided that Jake Brigham was too old and too expensive.
The “official answer” is that Jake Brigham wants to spend more time with his family. So, the Dragons’ GM thinks it is unlikely we will see Brigham returning for at least the first-half of the 2024 season. But yeah, I also wonder if this was money related.