Chien-Ming Wang

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 Taiwan 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.

He played for the World Team in the All-Star Futures Game in 2003.

After working his way up the Yankees' minor league system for several seasons, he made his MLB debut in 2005.

In 2005, Wang was called up from the Yankees' Triple-A affiliate, the Columbus Clippers.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

In 2013, Wang came back to the Yankees' Triple-A affiliate, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.

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.