Yankees interested in pitcher from Japan (no, not that one)

Presumably the Yankees are still considering a bid on Yu Darvish should the Nippon Ham Fighters post him (as expected), but in this post I’m going to look at a guy in the Japanese League who is a bit more under the radar, and won’t require a large posting fee. Wei-Ying Chen is a 26 year-old, 6’0″ 176 pound left-handed pitcher for the Chiunchi Dragons.  Chen is actually Taiwanese, but signed as an amateur free agent in Japan out of high school.  Unlike Darvish, Chen will be a free agent this offseason, allowing him to sign with a big league team without going through the posting process.  This gives him the ability to pick the team he wants, and also allows teams to bid for his services without paying a posting fee.  Chen has apparently been interested in going to America for several years, but the team has not posted him.

A lot of the information about Chen, and the Yankees’ interest in him, came courtesy of David P of Yankee Source (@yankeesource on Twitter), who was kind enough to share his thoughts on Chen with me via Twitter (and if you remember, wrote this great guest post on Darvish for us recently).  Per David, Chen can bring the heat, throwing a fastball in the low-90′s (topping out at 95), and complementing it with a slider (his best secondary offering), a curve, and a forkball.  His velocity was down a little this year due to a leg injury (topping out around 91), but it did not seem to affect him, as his level of performance was similar to previous seasons.

In Chen’s career with the Dragons, he has gone 36-30 with a 2.59 ERA, 7.2 k/9, and 2.2 bb/9.  His best season was in 2009, when he led the league in ERA with a gaudy 1.54 (league average was 3.55)  By those stats he has been able to miss bats, but is not a major strikeout pitcher (though his control is very good).  Unlike some other pitchers in the Japanese League (such as Darvish), Chen has not had incredibly high workloads, with his highest inning total 188 in 2010.

You can see video of Chen pitching here (courtesy of Patrick of Fangraphs), which is a 2-hour clip from a Dragons-Yomiuri Giants game.  I am no expert on mechanics, but from the few minutes I watched Chen’s delivery it looks pretty clean and smooth, and he doesn’t seem to rely too much on deception.  He uses a three-quarters arm angle, which could help make him tough on lefties.   Chen is somewhat of a flyball pitcher, however, which may not work so well in Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees reportedly have interest in Chen as a reliever (I imagine his fastball would play up nicely in the ‘pen), though thus far it is unclear whether Chen views himself as a starter in the bigs (and more importantly, whether any other big league teams view him as one).  I have no idea of Chen’s contract demands, but I assume he would be a fairly affordable signing.  I wouldn’t support guaranteeing Chen a rotation spot (since we saw how well that worked with Kei Igawa), but if the Yankees think he can start, I would be happy to have him compete for the 5th starter spot (provided he is willing to go to AAA or the bullpen if he doesn’t win the job).

Chen is no Darvish as far as talent goes, but the fact that the Yankees are looking at him has piqued my interest.  They may just be doing their homework on him as they would with a typical international free agent, or there may be a deeper interest there.  It’s unclear whether that interest is mutual, though the Yankees remain popular in Japan, which could help them bring in Chen.  The contract Chen ends up with will likely depend on whether he is viewed as a starter or reliever.  Either way, the Yankees can afford him, but as always, the question will be whether he is worth the money.  The velocity drop is a bit of a red flag (though I would imagine that even when healthy he was never hitting 95 consistently), but I’m sure the Yankees take all of this into account.

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