Taipei: Fubon Guardians veteran Lin Che-hsuan, the eighth Taiwanese player to reach Major League Baseball (MLB), will retire at the end of the current Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) season, the franchise announced Friday. Now 36, Lin has been plagued by injuries over the last two seasons, playing only 55 games in 2024 and eight games in 2025.

According to Focus Taiwan, Lin has batted .280 and recorded 771 hits in 799 games over his 11 CPBL seasons as of Friday. The Fubon Guardians also announced that a press conference will be held for Lin on Monday. Known for his speed and fielding skills, Lin signed with the Boston Red Sox on a US$400,000 deal after graduating from high school in June 2007.

The outfielder made his MLB debut on April 14, 2012, when Jacoby Ellsbury went on the injured list. He batted .250 with three hits in nine games, which turned out to be his only MLB season. Lin later signed minor league contracts with the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers before joining the CPBL’s EDA Rhino
s as the first overall pick in the 2015 mid-season draft.

Lin led the EDA Rhinos to the CPBL championship and was named Taiwan Series MVP in 2016, the franchise’s final season in Kaohsiung before it was moved to New Taipei and renamed the Fubon Guardians. His CPBL highlights came from 2016 to 2019, during which he was named an All-Star and won the Golden Glove Award each year.