Ryan Garcia
The New York Yankees have officially announced the signing of Taiwanese pitching prospect Chien-Fan Lai, a right-handed arm who will report to the Dominican Summer League.
It’s the third time the Yankees have signed a player out of Taiwan, the second time they’ve done so on the pitching side with Chien-Ming Wang being the last pitcher they signed from the country all the back in 2000.
Lai has a fastball that has topped out at 96 MPH, sporting a big curveball with lots of depth and an offspeed pitch with swing-and-miss upside as well.
The announcement came via their NYY Player Dev account on Twitter/X, and they expect him to be one of their better international free agent signings from a 2026 class that lost a good chunk of their commitments this winter.
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Chein-Fan Lai Joins Yankees Farm System Out of Taiwan
Chien-Fan Lai is a wirey right-hander who sports a 91-94 MPH fastball with good vertical movement as he has an overhead delivery that allows him to stay behind the baseball well.
Lai pitched for Daxi Senior High School in Taoyuan, Taiwan, as he was considered to be one of the top high school prospects from the nation.
He competed in the 2025 U-18 Baseball World Cup, where Taiwan finished in third place winning a Bronze Medal thanks in-part to his 14 strikeouts across seven innings of work out of the bullpen.
Chien-Ming Wang was the last Taiwanese-born player to play at the Major League level for the Yankees while Fu-Lin Kuo is their most recent undrafted free agent from the region, which came back in 2009.
The Yankees will build him up as a starter at the lowest level of Minor League Baseball to start, which is the Dominican Summer League.
Lai’s repertoire should provide some swing-and-miss if his command is solid because he can move the ball north-south effectively and has the pitch traits of a strikeout pitcher in his movement profile.
If the Yankees could get him to bulk up more, there’s room for him to add velocity and there’s room for him to expand the mix more as the organization continues to work with him.
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