BASEBALL/Nippon-Ham Fighters earn right to negotiate with 2024 CPBL MVP Gu Lin

Taipei, Nov. 12 (CNA) Gu Lin Ruei-yang (古林睿煬), the 2024 regular season MVP of Taiwan's professional baseball league, is set to bring his talents to the Japanese franchise Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters next season.

The Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), who selected Gu Lin as the second overall pick in the 2018 mid-season draft, announced Tuesday that the Nippon-Ham Fighters has earned the exclusive negotiation rights with its flame-throwing right-handed pitcher.

The final details of the move are expected to be settled within a month.

In a press statement, Uni-Lions General Manager Su Tai-an (蘇泰安) thanked multiple teams from Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for their interest in Gu Lin throughout the 2024 season, including the Yokohama DeNA BayStars, Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, NPB's 2024 champions and runners-up.

Other teams like Yomiuri Giants and Tokyo Yakult Swallows were also interested in the young phenom.

"The team offers its best wishes as Gu Lin Ruei-yang is posted and looks forward to seeing him perform well overseas, which will also be an honor for the Lions," Su said.

The posting system is a transfer process that originated in Japan, which allows players from NPB to negotiate with teams in Major League Baseball (MLB) before reaching free agency.

The Nippon-Ham Fighters will now begin discussing contract details with Gu Lin, according to the Uni-Lions' statement.

If all goes smoothly, the 24-year-old Gu Lin will become the first Taiwanese player to join NPB from CPBL since Wang Po-jung (王柏融) in 2019 and the first Taiwanese pitcher to do so since Lin En-yu (林恩宇) in 2007.

In his sixth year with the Uni-Lions, Gu Lin was the only Taiwanese pitcher to achieve double-digit wins this season, recording a league-best 1.66 ERA and 10 wins while pitching 125 innings over 21 games-all career bests.

He became the first Taiwanese pitcher to win the CPBL MVP of the Year since Lin in 2006.