Kun-Yu Chiang

Kun-Yu Chiang (江坤宇)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 8", Weight 158 lb.

• School Taipei City University
• High School Taoyuan Municipal Ping-Jen Senior High School

• Born July 4, 2000 in Taipei City Taiwan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Kun-Yu Chiang has played in the CPBL and been on the Taiwanese national team.

Chiang was the All-Star third baseman in the 2015 U-15 Asian Championship, won by Taiwan. He also appeared in the 2018 U-18 Asian Championship. He was the third pick of the Chinatrust Brothers in the 2018 CPBL Draft, following MLB vet C.C. Lee and Yu-Chieh Kao. He debuted in the 2019 CPBL, getting his first hit off Ming-Hsiang Chang. He was 0 for 5 with a walk and two runs otherwise that season, backing up Sheng-Wei Wang at short. He played in the Asia Winter Baseball League. His first CPBL homer came off Chun-Jen Cheng on April 18, 2020. When he hit a grand slam off Shih-Peng Chen in July, he became the youngest player in franchise history to hit a grand slam; he had just 20 years old a week prior. Displacing Wang as the starter at short, he hit .309/.357/.410 with 22 doubles, fielding .971. He won the CPBL Gold Glove but lost the Best Ten to Tsung-Hsien Li and CPBL Rookie of the Year went to slugger An-Ko Lin. He was hit by 14 pitches, second in the league, and he tied Kao for third in sacrifice hits (10). He won Game MVP in 2020 Taiwan Series Game 3, going 4 for 4 and flashing fine leather. His batting line was .346/.333/.423 in the series, but the Brothers were beaten by the Uni-President Lions in 7 games.

The Taipei City native slipped to .261/.328/.340 and fielded .974 in 2021, while going 13-for-13 in steal attempts. He made leaderboards in doubles (29, tied Yi-Chuan Lin for 4th), steals (tied Che-Hsuan Lin for 10th), times plunked (9, tied for 5th) and sacrifice hits (12, 3rd). He repeated as a Gold Glove winner, this time also taking the Best Ten. He won the monthly MVP award in September 2022. He had his best season yet at .318/.392/.416 with a .976 fielding percentage. He again won a Gold Glove and Best Ten. He was the first shortstop to defend their Best Ten title since Chieh-Hsien Chen in 2017-2018. The only others to have done so were Chih-Sheng Lin, Chao-Hang Cheng and Epy Guerrero Jr.. Chiang was 1-for-7 with a RBI single against Hung-Wen Chen in 2022 CPBL All-Star Game 2. He finished third in average (behind Li Lin and Chen-Wei Chen), third in OBP (behind Chi-Hung Hsu and Chia-Jung Liang), sixth in OPS (between Chen-Wei Chen and Hsu), second in runs (seven behind Li Lin), fifth in hits (129), tied for ninth in doubles (18), eighth in walks (37) and tied for the most times hit by pitch (13). In the 2022 Taiwan Series, Chiang was 5-for-17 with a RBI to helped the Brothers sweep the Rakuten Monkeys.

Chiang then made Taiwan's roster for the 2023 World Baseball Classic. He was 2-for-3 with a pair of singles against Humberto Mejia and Randall Delgado of Panama, then he went 1-for-5 with a single from Joey Marciano of Italy. Chiang was 1-for-2 with a single against Arij Fransen of Netherlands, then went 0-for-2 versus Cuba. He had a .291/.360/.380 batting line in 2023, and he ranked 8th in batting (.047 behind Chia-Jung Liang). He became the first shortstop to win 3 straight Best Ten after Chih-Sheng Lin did it in 2008, and he also won his fourth consecutive Gold Glove. In the 2023 CPBL All-Star Game, Chiang was 1-for-6 with a RBI single against Tzu-Yu Lin in Game 2.