Major League Baseball team signs 18-year-old Taiwanese pitcher

Los Angeles, Oct. 9 (CNA) The San Diego Padres of the United States' Major League Baseball (MLB) announced Thursday that it had signed 18-year-old Taiwanese right-hander Su Lan-hong (蘇嵐鴻) to the organization.

Su has been assigned to the Padres Brown, the team's affiliate in the Dominican Summer League, and will wear the No. 11 jersey -- the same number as Padres star pitcher Yu Darvish, who Taiwanese media have reported is Su's idol.

Photos released by the Padres on Thursday showed Su being welcomed into the organization by Darvish and team general manager A.J. Preller at Petco Park in San Diego, California.

Su was signed under the team's international bonus pool program and is set to begin his climb through the Padres' system next year.

"We're excited to add Su to the organization and look forward to helping him achieve his dream of becoming a Major League pitcher," Padres scouting director Chris Kemp said in a statement. "Scouting him over the years has been a team effort, but recent looks from Po-Hsuan Keng (耿伯軒), Trevor Schumm and Dave Post cemented our belief in Su as both a pitcher and teammate."

Su's signing marks the first time the Southern California-based team has added a Taiwanese player to its roster, following the signing of Sung Wen-hua (宋文華) in 2016.

Standing 188 centimeters tall, Su graduated from Kaohsiung Municipal Sanmin Senior High School.

He served as the closer for Taiwan's U-18 national team at the World Cup in Okinawa, Japan, in September, posting a 2.46 ERA while holding opponents to a .192 batting average. He struck out 14 batters and walked three over 7 1/3 innings.