3 international relievers the Pittsburgh Pirates should pursue this offseason

Jyun-Yue Tseng

Jyun-Yue Tseng is a right-hander out of Taiwan. He has pitched in the Chinese Professional Baseball League the last four seasons, and has been outright dominant. Tseng has a career 1.86 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, a 31.1% strikeout rate, an 8% walk rate, and a HR/9 of 0.27. He is also coming off the best season of his career thus far.

Tseng tossed 46.1 innings in 2024. His 1.55 ERA is the second lowest of his career, but he has career bests in multiple other peripherals. Tseng only handed out a walk to 7.1% of opponents with a career best K% of 34.2% last season. This bred a 4.85 K:BB ratio, the first time he has struck out at least four batters for every walk. He has given up just a single home run all year as well.

If this blurb doesn't pique your interest, his World Baseball Classic cameo answered several questions, too.

Despite his smaller stature, standing at 5’8” and 150 pounds, Tseng sits in the mid-90s, topping out at 99, with plenty of riding life. His slurve has the potential to be an above-average secondary offering. His shorter frame allows for a different look with his fastball. However, FanGraphs notes that he needs to sharpen the offering up. He can struggle with the shape of his slurve and can be inconsistent at times, which leads to some questions about his command over his breaking pitch.

Tseng is not yet considered a foreign professional under MLB’s CBA definition. He has not played six seasons of pro ball and has yet to reach the age of 25. The Pirates have a decent amount of international pool space, so they should consider Tseng as a bullpen reinforcement if he wants to make the jump to MLB.