Taipei, Jan. 4 (CNA) Lin Chih-sheng (林智勝), last year's most valuable player in Taiwan's professional baseball league, has signed a free agent contract with the Chinatrust Brothers that will make him the highest paid player in the league.

Yang Pei-hung (楊培宏), the Brothers' general manager, said Monday at a news conference that Lin signed a contract for NT$45 million (US$1.36 million) over three years that includes NT$36 million in salary and NT$9 million in incentives.

In 2015, Lin became the first player in history in the CPBL (Chinese Professional Baseball League) to have more than 30 home runs and 30 steals and a batting average over .300 in a single season, registering 31 homers, 30 stolen bases and a .380 batting average.

Lin led the Lamigo Monkeys to the CPBL championship last year, but he seemed happy to be joining a new club.

"I hope to seize the championship trophy from Lamigo (for my new team)," Lin said at the press conference.

The league MVP became the first professional player to transfer to another club since the CPBL adopted a free agent system starting in the 2010 season.

Before Lin decided to sign with the Brothers and stay in Taiwan, there had been speculation that foreign teams might be interested in him.

(By Lee Yu-cheng and Lilian Wu)
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