Shortstop Tsung-Che Cheng (鄭宗哲) became the third Taiwanese player in Pittsburgh Pirates history when he made his Major League debut this afternoon against the Cardinals. The Pirates called him up on Monday after infielder Jared Triolo went on the injured list. They signed him as a 17-year-old prospect in 2019, and he's the third Taiwanese player to make the regular season roster, after Wei-chung Wang in 2019 and Yu Chang in 2022. Chang is the longest-tenured Taiwanese player in Pittsburgh Pirates history, logging 18 games played and 42 at-bats. The Pirates have had numerous other Taiwanese players in the system, dating back to at least 2009 with Sheng-qin Hong, Pin-Hong Ji, and Ji-wei Xu.
The Pirates have had a number of other Asian-born players in their system, including: Chan-ho Park, Jung-ho Kang, Hoy Park, Ji-hwan Bae, and Ji-man Choi from Korea; and Masumi Kuwata, Akinori Iwamoto, Hisanori Takahashi, and Yoshitomo Tsutsugo from Japan.
Cheng is currently wearing #71 for the Pirates.
