Chien-Ming Wang (; born March 31, 1980) is a Taiwanese former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees, Washington Nationals, Toronto Blue Jays, and Kansas City Royals. He also played for the Chinese Taipei national baseball team, and is the current assistant pitching coach for CTBC Brothers.
Wang signed as an amateur free agent with the Yankees in 2000. After working his way up the Yankees' minor league system for several seasons, he made his MLB debut in 2005. With his hard sinker, he was one of the best starting pitchers for the Yankees in 2006 and 2007, winning 19 games in both seasons and leading the American League in that category in 2006. He suffered a foot injury in 2008 that limited his appearances and effectiveness, and a series of arm injuries cost him most of the 2009 season and all of 2010. Wang returned to major leagues with the Washington Nationals in 2011, starting 21 games over two seasons while again spending time on the disabled list. He signed with the Yankees in 2013 but was released without pitching in the major leagues, then signed with the Toronto Blue Jays and made six starts with limited effectiveness. He pitched for minor league teams in several organizations in 2014 and 2015. In 2016, he returned to the major leagues as a relief pitcher with the Kansas City Royals.
Wang was the third major leaguer from Taiwan, following Dodgers outfielder Chin-Feng Chen, and Rockies pitcher Chin-Hui Tsao.
Minor league career Wang rose through the New York Yankees' minor league system, including the Single-A Staten Island Yankees, who retired his #41 in 2006. Wang posted a 1.75 ERA for Staten Island, second-lowest in franchise history. He played for the World Team in the All-Star Futures Game in 2003. In 2005, Wang was called up from the Yankees' Triple-A affiliate, the Columbus Clippers. In 2013, Wang came back to the Yankees' Triple-A affiliate, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.
Major league career New York Yankees 2005–2007
Wang made his MLB debut on April 30, 2005, against the Toronto Blue Jays, pitching seven strong innings while allowing only two earned runs. He earned a no-decision in the Yankees' 4–3 win. Wang pitched in 18 games, though an injury kept him sidelined for part of the season. He went 8–5 with an earned run average of 4.02. On September 19, 2005, Wang tied a record for assists in a game by a pitcher with nine. In the playoffs against the Angels, Wang pitched 6 innings and allowed four runs, only one of which was earned. The Yankees lost the game and the series.
In 2006, Wang won 19 games (tied for the most in the majors along with Johan Santana) and posted a 3.63 ERA in 218 innings across 34 games (33 starts). He picked up his first save on June 3 against the Baltimore Orioles in his only non-starting appearance. Wang also threw two complete games, though the first, on June 18, was bittersweet: against the Washington Nationals, he allowed a one-out, two-run, walk-off home run by Ryan Zimmerman to lose the game 3–2. His first complete-game win was on July 28, 2006, a two-hit, 6–0 shutout of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Yankee Stadium. In his next start, he threw eight shutout innings against the Toronto Blue Jays, in which he got an outstanding 16 ground ball outs. Wang was particularly strong in the second half of the season, winning 10 of his 14 starts and posting a 3.13 ERA in 92 innings. He was selected to start the first game of the Division Series against the Detroit Tigers, earning the win as the Yankees beat Detroit 8–4.
Overall in 2006, Wang limited batters to a .211 batting average while games were tied, and a .205 batting average in games that were late and close. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays batted just .159 against him, losing three out of four games to the Yankees that Wang pitched. Wang was effective despite the lowest strikeout rate in the majors (3.14 strikeouts per nine innings and 76 strikeouts overall), thanks in part to his allowing the fewest home runs per nine innings (0.5; he allowed just 12 home runs overall). Wang also led the league in ground ball percentage (62.8%) and obtained 2.84 groundouts for every fly ball out.
At the end of the season, Wang finished second to Johan Santana in voting for the Cy Young Award. Wang collected 15 second-place votes, and 51 points. He also received a ninth-place vote, good for two points, in the AL MVP balloting, won by Justin Morneau. In MLB.com's This Year in Baseball Awards, he was chosen as the top starter in 2006 season with more than 47% of the fan vote.
Wang began the 2007 season on the disabled list, having injured his right hamstring during spring training. He returned on April 24 against Tampa Bay. On May 5, 2007, Wang pitched 7 perfect innings before giving up a home run to Ben Broussard of the Seattle Mariners, falling five outs short of a perfect game.
On June 17, 2007, Wang had a superb outing versus the New York Mets, in which he threw 113 pitches through 8 and 2/3 innings, notched 10 strikeouts (a career high) and gave up just two runs on six hits. On August 30, Wang took a no-hitter against the Boston Red Sox into the seventh inning before giving up a single to Mike Lowell. Rookies Joba Chamberlain and Edwar Ramírez finished the two-hitter, and the Yankees beat the Red Sox 5–0.
In 2007, Wang was second in the AL in wins (19), third for the second straight year in win–loss percentage (.731), ninth in wild pitches (9), and 10th in hit batsmen (8). He had a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage. He also had the lowest HR/9 innings pitched ratio in the AL (0.41; in innings he allowed just nine home runs), was third in GB% (58.5%) and GB/FB (2.51), and had the fifth-lowest strikeouts per 9 innings pitched (4.70, and 104 strikeouts overall).
Despite his regular season performance, Wang faltered in the 2007 postseason. In the American League Division Series against the Cleveland Indians, Wang started two games, earning the loss in both appearances. He pitched a combined 5 and 2/3 innings, giving up 12 earned runs, for a postseason ERA of 19.06. The Yankees lost the ALDS in four games.
2008–2009 The beginning of the 2008 season saw Wang at the top of the Yankees rotation and the ace with veterans Mike Mussina and Andy Pettitte. In the final Yankee Stadium season opener against the Toronto Blue Jays, Wang pitched 7.0 innings, allowing only two runs and picking up his first win of the season. In his first start against the Boston Red Sox in 2008, he pitched a one-run, two-hit complete game.
On April 22, 2008, Wang recorded a win against the Chicago White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field. The victory, in Wang's 85th career start, made him the fastest Major Leaguer to record 50 wins as a starter since Dwight Gooden, who won his 50th game in his 82nd start on June 29, 1986, at Chicago for the New York Mets. Wang also became the quickest Yankee to 50 wins since Ron Guidry, who accomplished this in his 82nd start.
Wang finished April with a perfect 5–0 record, leading the American League along with Joe Saunders. On May 2, Wang became the first six-game winner in the American League with a win over the Seattle Mariners with just one earned run over six innings. On May 8, Cliff Lee of the Cleveland Indians beat Wang 3–0, handing Wang his first loss of the season. During this loss, Wang allowed three runs and five hits in seven innings. On June 10, after going six starts with two losses and four no decisions since May 2, Wang defeated the Oakland Athletics 3–1 to end the longest victory drought of his career. Through 2008, Wang had the third highest winning percentage of all starting pitchers over the last three years (46–15, .754).
On June 15, Wang was taken out of an interleague game versus the Houston Astros due to a right foot injury he sustained while running the bases, something he was not used to doing, since pitchers do not bat in the American League. Wang was diagnosed with a torn Lisfranc ligament of the right foot and a partial tear of the peroneus longus of the right foot. Despite not requiring surgery, he was on crutches and wearing a protective boot. The cast was removed on July 29, but the extensive rehabilitation process prevented Wang from pitching for the remainder of the season. Yankees' part-owner Hank Steinbrenner showed frustration with pitchers having to bat in the National League and suggested that the League "join the modern age". On December 22, 2008, Wang and the New York Yankees avoided salary arbitration when they agreed to a $5 million, one-year contract. Wang made $4 million in the 2008 season after losing in salary arbitration. He had asked for $4.6 million.
On April 3, 2009, Wang became the first Yankees' starting and the first game winning pitcher of the new Yankee Stadium in the stadium opener exhibition game against Chicago Cubs. His regular season began with an extraordinarily bad performance. In his first start of the regular season, Wang gave up seven earned runs and nine hits in 3.2 innings against the Baltimore Orioles. That was followed by a one-inning appearance against the Tampa Bay Rays when he surrendered eight earned runs in just one inning. In his third start, against the Cleveland Indians in New York on April 18, Wang was credited for eight more earned runs in 1.1 innings; Cleveland won the game 22–4. After his first three appearances, Wang was 0–3 with a whopping 34.50 ERA.
There was speculation that the right foot injury Wang sustained during the 2008 season caused him to compensate with the rest of his pitching motion, leading to his 2009 struggles. Following the April 18 game manager Joe Girardi said, "We have some time. We have a day off, I think Thursday, and we're going to have to decide what's best for Chien-Ming Wang and the team." On April 22, General Manager Brian Cashman, at a Q&A at Southern Connecticut State University, confirmed Wang's release point was five inches higher than the same time the previous season.
After being removed from the rotation and sent down to Tampa to work out mechanical issues, Wang was diagnosed with weakness in the muscles of both hips and placed on the disabled list. He was activated from the disabled list on May 22, 2009, and on his first day on the active roster, he was brought in from the bullpen. After two more relief appearances, Wang went back to the rotation, but he struggled once again in his first and second starts back. On June 28, Wang earned his first win of the season, also his first since June 15, 2008, giving up two runs over 5.1 innings against the New York Mets.
Wang was placed on the disabled list on July 15, 2009, due to shoulder soreness. He was then eliminated for the remainder of the season after undergoing shoulder surgery on July 30, 2009. After the Yankees won the 2009 World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies, Wang participated in the championship parade through the Canyon of Heroes, but acknowledged it "would have been more fun" if he had been healthy. On December 12, 2009, the Yankees made the choice not to re-sign him, making him a free agent.
Taiwan fans followed Wang's tenure at the Yankees closely. Due to the domestic excitement about Wang, every Yankees game was shown live on television in Taiwan, often on two networks, and rebroadcast at least once later in the day. This led to the frequent joke that the Yankees were the Republic of China's national team. After the Yankees did not re-sign Wang in 2009, the team's reputation among the public on Taiwan declined.
Washington Nationals
2010–2012