Lin An-Ko is Heading to NPB
On November 3, Uni-Lions slugger Lin An-Ko (林安可) filed for international free agency, and his request to be posted during the 2025 CPBL offseason was approved by the team, opening the door for NPB teams to submit their offers.
After reviewing all the available offers, the Uni-Lions announced on November 17 that the Saitama Seibu Lions had emerged as the winner, acquiring the negotiation rights to Lin An-Ko. Under CPBL posting regulations, the Seibu Lions now have a 30-day window to finalise a contract with him.
“We are grateful to the Seibu Lions for recognising Lin An-Ko’s talent. We are glad to see Lin exercising his posting rights and look forward to seeing him perform in NPB,” said Uni-Lions general manager Su Tai-An.
Uni-Lions’ 林安可 (Lin An-Ko) drills a 155 kph fastball to deep centre for a walk-off home run. pic.twitter.com/EshMDjK9fd
— CPBL STATS (Taiwan Dark Lemon) 🪬🔮 (@GOCPBL) June 13, 2025
The 28-year-old power-hitting outfielder becomes the third player to be successfully posted through the CPBL posting system.
Lin An-Ko has been one of the top hitters in the CPBL since joining the Uni-Lions in 2019. Over his CPBL career, he has slashed .287/.373/.508 across 2360 plate appearances. He led the league in home runs and won the Rookie of the Year award in 2020.
In 2025, Lin An-Ko dominated the league, finishing the season with a slash line of .318/.397/.603 and an insane 199 wRC+ over 375 plate appearances. Below are his 2025 stats compared with the rest of the league and his spray chart. [data via by REBAS]
Lin An-Ko’s wRC+ by Season
- 2019 – 86
- 2020 – 138
- 2021 – 156
- 2022 – 133
- 2023 – 128
- 2024 – 135
- 2025 – 199
Uni-Lions’ 林安可 (Lin An-Ko) belts a no-doubter to deep right for a solo shot. pic.twitter.com/yX3G0SMlnz
— CPBL STATS (Taiwan Dark Lemon) 🪬🔮 (@GOCPBL) March 29, 2025
Rumours on Lin An-Ko’s Contract and Posting Fee
According to Liberty Sports, the Seibu Lions are expected to sign Lin An-Ko to a 2-year deal worth roughly 2 million USD, with a club option for a third year. The Uni-Lions are likely to receive approximately 1 million USD from the Seibu Lions as the posting fee.
As per GO Baseball, Lin An-Ko’s annual salary with the Seibu Lions is over 1 million USD including performance incentives. The Uni-Lions are set to receive roughly 1.2 million USD from Seibu Lions as the posting fee.
We will continue to follow this story as it develop and update the contract once the official news is out.
2024 #WBSC Premier12
ANKO BOMB! Team Taiwan’s 林安可 (Lin An-Ko) crushes a mammoth solo home run to deep right. 🚀
🔸 Exit Velocity: 112 mph
🔸 Launch Angle: 24°
🔸 Distance: 443 ft pic.twitter.com/YShlQCfMXO— CPBL STATS (Taiwan Dark Lemon) 🪬🔮 (@GOCPBL) November 23, 2024
Do you think he’ll be more successful in the NPB than Wang Po-Jung was?
Hmmm, it’s always hard to predict things like this, as a lot of time it has to do with how players adjusting to different league. But I would say Lin An-Ko might do better than Wang Po-Jung in NPB, because Lin is from the era of hitting the CPBL’s de-juiced ball, similar to NPB’s brick ball. Wang on the other hand, was from the CPBL’s hyper juiced ball era. In terms of hitting style, Lin is similar to the “traditional full-power foreign hitter”, as for Wang is more of like a contact guy with mid-range power. But I think ultimately, it is all about how much patience the Seibu Lions would give Lin, because like I said earlier, they do need time to adjust.