Major League Baseball (MLB) free agent Yu Chang (張育成) yesterday said he would play for the national team in the upcoming World Baseball Classic (WBC), marking an about-face after he previously said that if he is called up, he would skip the tournament.
That announcement drew condemnation from baseball fans in Taiwan, with some calling the former Cleveland Guardians infielder a conscription “deserter.”
“If I am included in the final WBC roster, then I will not shirk my responsibility,” Chang yesterday told a meeting with CPBL commissioner Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌).
Photo courtesy of the CPBL
National team manager Lin Yue-ping (林岳平) said that Chang would help add depth to the roster, which might also feature former Boston Red Sox infielder Lin Tzu-wei (林子偉), who in October last year said he would play for the national team if the manager nominates him.
Chang in a statement on Sunday said he is prioritizing his career and would therefore refuse to play for the national team.
Several MLB teams are reportedly interested in signing him for spring training, potentially giving him a chance to return to the US majors.
Sources cited ACES Baseball, the agency representing Chang, as reporting contacts to MLB teams, while others cited Chang’s company, YC, which is managed by his wife, Lee Chia-ling (李家綾), as the origin of the news.
Sunday’s statement led to furious reactions in Taiwan, with many baseball fans taking to social media to accuse Chang of being unwilling to serve his country.
Some called him “a shameful player who is not honoring his national duty,” while others said he is “a disgraced athlete who is seeking loopholes to avoid being called up.”
“If wearing the national team colors is not good for him, then we demand the government draft Chang immediately to undergo the required four-month military boot camp,” another social media user wrote.
While the government late last year announced that conscription would be restored to one year, after a previous administration reduced the terms to four month, the new policy only applies to Taiwanese men born after 2005. Chang was born in 1994.
However, Taiwan’s conscription system, similar to that requiring South Korean men to serve 18 months to two years in that country’s military, often exempts the nation’s top athletes from serving the full term, with many only undergoing 12 days of military training.
Chang qualified for the reduced term when he was called up to play for the national team at the 2019 Asian Baseball Championship and was placed under the Sports Administration’s supervision on military service matters for five years.
During that period, Chang is obliged to play for the national team whenever he is called up, and if he refuses to do so, he risks being conscripted, baseball expert Cheng Yu-lun (鄭毓倫) said.
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