Current season, competition or edition: 2025 Chinese Professional Baseball League season | |
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| Sport | Baseball |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1989 |
| Commissioner | Tsai Chi-chang |
| No. of teams | 6 |
| Country | Taiwan |
| Continent | Asia |
| Most recent champion | Rakuten Monkeys (8th title) (2025) |
| Most titles | CTBC Brothers Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions (both 10 titles) |
| Qualification | Asia Series (2005–2013) |
| Broadcasters | CPBL TV (via Hami Video) ELTA Sports [zh] Videoland Television Network DAZN MOMOTV |
| Level on pyramid | 1 |
| Official website | cpbl.com.tw |
TheChinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL;Chinese:中華職業棒球大聯盟;pinyin:Zhōnghuá Zhíyè Bàngqiú Dàliánméng) is the top-tier professionalbaseball league inTaiwan. The league was established in 1989 and played the first season in 1990.[1] CPBL eventually absorbed the competingTaiwan Major League in 2003. As of the 2025 season, the CPBL consists of six organizations, all of which have teams in the main league and farm league.
The CPBL consists of Major (Chinese:一軍;lit. 'first/primary corps') and, since 2006, Minor (Chinese:二軍;lit. 'second/reserve corps') leagues, with the Minor league team rosters consist of developmental and injury-recovering players. In comparison toMinor League Baseball, the CPBL is considered to be at aSingle-A level, with a wider spread of talent and more offense than American leagues.[2][3]
CPBL TV is CPBL's official paid live-streaming and video-on-demand platform. It receives signals from each team's broadcasting partners and is available worldwide.
Baseball was first introduced to Taiwan duringJapanese rule, and gained popularity when the national little league baseball teams won numerousLittle League World Series championships in the 1970s and 1980s. Thenational baseball team also performed exceptionally well in many international competitions.[4] However, the development of baseball in Taiwan was limited due to the lack of a professional league, and therefore many players were reluctant to commit to the sport.
The idea of forming a professional baseball league in Taiwan was first suggested by localBrother Hotel's chairman Hung Teng-sheng (洪騰勝).[4] He formed his amateur Brother Hotel baseball team in 1984, and intended to professionalize his team and form a professional league within a few years. Throughout 1988 and 1989, Hung visited numerous Taiwanese businesses, trying to convince them to form professional baseball clubs. Most of his requests were rejected, butWei Chuan Corporation,Mercuries Chain Stores, andUni-President Corporation all supported the idea and formed teams. The Chinese Professional Baseball League was established on October 23, 1989, with Hung Teng-sheng acting as secretary-general. Because of his contribution to professional baseball in Taiwan, Hung is sometimes referred to as the "Father of the CPBL."[4] Chung Meng-shun (鍾孟舜) designed every original logo of the four founding teams.[5]
With the popularity rise in the first few years, theJungo Bears andChina Times Eagles joined in 1993. TheKoos Group Whales joined in 1997.The league consisted of seven teams in the 1997 season which is the maximum in CPBL history.
The Black Eagles Incident in 1997 resulted in a major popularity decline. TheChina Times Eagles became defunct after the 1997 season. TheWei Chuan Dragons andMercuries Tigers also became defunct after the 1999 season, prior to which the Dragons had won all championships from 1997 to 1999.
In 1997, the newly foundedTaiwan Major League began to compete with the CPBL. The two leagues were often competing with each other, but eventually, the TML merged with the CPBL.
In May 2019, CommissionerJohn Wu announced that CPBL had reached agreement withTing Hsin International Group to join the league by reactivating a former team, theWei Chuan Dragons. The Dragons participated in the minor league in 2020, and returned to the major league in 2021.[6]
AfterTsai Chi-chang became commissioner in 2021, he proposed thatKaohsiung serve as the location for a new team since it was the onlymajor city in Taiwan without a CPBL team at the time.[7] In February 2022, Tsai announced that the sixth team would either be formed byChunghwa Telecom orTaiwan Steel Group. It was later announced that the expansion team would be by Taiwan Steel Group. The proposed team name isTSG Hawks, and their home field would beChengcing Lake Stadium in Kaohsiung.[8]
Due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, the opening day of the31st CPBL season on March 14 was delayed. It was originally brought earlier compared to previous seasons to accommodate thefinal qualifying tournament of2021 Tokyo Olympics.[9]
On 1 April, the CPBL announced that the season would begin from 11 April as theRakuten Monkeys hosted theChinatrust Brothers with the games being playing without live fans.[10] This received international coverage because other major baseball leagues such as theMLB inNorth America, theNPB inJapan, and theKBO inSouth Korea, which were still severely impacted by the virus outbreak were unable to confirm the dates of their respective season openings.[11] The annualCPBL All-Star Game was cancelled for the first time to accommodate to the compact schedule.[12]
The name "Chinese Professional Baseball League" has attracted debate among Taiwanese baseball fans. Many have called to for the name of CPBL be changed, with suggestions including the replacement of “Chinese” with “Taiwan”, “Formosa” or “Chunghwa”.[13][14]
In the2018 Taiwanese referendum, CPBL officials publicly rejected the proposal for Taiwan to compete as "Taiwan" instead of "Chinese Taipei" in the2020 Summer Olympics, for fear that Taiwanese athletes may risk losing eligibility. The league received criticism for holding this stance while selling official merchandise that said "Team Taiwan."[15]
In April 2020, PremierSu Tseng-chang said that in order to elevate Taiwan's visibility in the world, there was a need to distinguish Taiwan from China in the naming ofChina Airlines and CPBL.[16] ANew Power Party survey showed that 62% of Taiwanese people support changing the name of the league to distinguish itself from Chinese baseball and avoid confusion.[17]
In January 2021, CPBL commissionerTsai Chi-chang agreed that spectators should be made aware that the league was being played in Taiwan and not China, but that a name change was not a top priority.[18]
The league naming issue, alongside the "Chinese Taipei" issue, became polemic again after Taiwan's victory at the2024 WBSC Premier 12, its first international top-level title ever. During the championship game, one of players did a celebration gesturing the lack of "Taiwan" on the jersey.[19][20][21]
All teams are owned by and named after large Taiwanese corporations, a similar practice seen in Japan'sNPB and South Korea'sKBO. Each team manages a regional market with a home city, but does not play its games exclusively in that market. Other than the home cities, regular season games are also held inHsinchu,Douliu,Chiayi,Pingtung,Luodong,Hualien, andTaitung with less frequency.
Each season spans from March to October, with a one-week all-star break in June or July, which separates the season into first and second half-seasons. Playoffs are held in late October or early November, with three teams competing in two rounds. A team may qualify for playoffs either by winning a half-season title, or be awarded a wild card berth by attaining the highest place in the seasonal ranks. If a team wins a half-season title, it will not be considered in the seasonal ranks when the winner of the wild card is being decided. If both half seasons were won by the same team, another wild card berth will be given through the same mechanism after the first berth has been awarded
Between 2005 and 2013, the champion team will represent Taiwan in theAsia Series to compete with other champion teams fromNippon Professional Baseball (Japan Series),KBO League (Korean Series),Australian Baseball League (Claxton Shield), and theWBSC Europe (European Champion Cup).
A typical salary for a foreign player as of 2025 starts at around $20,000USD on a three month guaranteed contract and can reach as much as $600,000 for full season for the best foreign players, these positions are normally filled by players with Triple-A and limited MLBMajor League Baseball and NPBNippon Professional Baseball major league experience. The number of foreign players allowed on a team's roster is limited to four. Of the four players only three are allowed to be activated on the major league roster, the remaining foreign player can practice and prepare with the team or play in the minors. A foreign player, once sent to the minor league team, must wait a week before being allowed to be recalled to the major league.
Any foreign players who have played in the league for more than 9 years will not count towards the foreign players limit on the roster. Furthermore, any foreign nationals who have lived in Taiwan for 3+ years during grade 7-12, 4+ years during college, or have lived in Taiwan for 5+ years while participating in amateur league for 3+ years, are eligible to enter the draft as indigenous players and, likewise, are not counted towards foreign players limit for the team.
Foreign players, from regions other than Japan and South Korea, are given Chineseepithets to increase familiarity with Taiwanese fans. These epithets, usually two to three characters in length, are generally loosetransliterations of the players' names and are generally chosen as terms meant to convey strength or might. One example isJeff Andra, whose epithet isFeiyong (飛勇) — meaning, literally, a flying brave man. Recently however, most foreign players are just simply given a direct Chinesetranscription. Some players (mostly foreign players) have now adopted the custom in the rest of the world by placing their surnames on the back of their jerseys using theLatin alphabet. Some teams now have adopted Latin alphabet jerseys, a trend that has picked up in recent years. TheFubon Guardians only have uniforms with such, and the other teams are adopting such jerseys on occasion.
| Club | Chinese name | Location | Stadium | Capacity | Founded | Joined |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CTBC Brothers | 中信兄弟 | Taichung City | Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium | 20,000 | 1984 | 1990 |
| Fubon Guardians | 富邦悍將 | New Taipei City | Xinzhuang Baseball Stadium | 12,500 | 1989 | 1993 |
| Rakuten Monkeys | 樂天桃猿 | Taoyuan City | Rakuten Taoyuan Baseball Stadium | 20,000 | 2003 | 2003 |
| TSG Hawks | 台鋼雄鷹 | Kaohsiung City | Chengcing Lake Baseball Stadium | 20,000 | 2022 | 2023 |
| Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions | 統一7-ᴇʟᴇᴠᴇn獅 | Tainan City | Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium | 12,000 | 1989 | 1990 |
| Wei Chuan Dragons | 味全龍 | Taipei City | Tianmu Baseball Stadium | 10,000 | 1988 2019 (refounded) | 1990–1999 2020 (reactivated) |
The CPBL Minor League took shape in late 2003 as a result of cooperation withChinese Taipei Baseball Association.Alternative service draftees, players deemed eligible to complete their national service obligation in the field of baseball, were sent to the CPBL member organizations to fill their roster. There are currently 6 minor league teams, each plays about 80 games annually. Similar to theNPB's minor leagues, the minor league teams are each owned by CPBL member clubs as reserve teams rather than independent organizations.
Titles by teams as of the end of the 2025 CPBL season:
| Team | Titles | Runners-up |
|---|---|---|
| CTBC Brothers | 10 | 9 |
| Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions | 10 | 8 |
| Rakuten Monkeys | 8 | 4 |
| Wei Chuan Dragons | 5 | 2 |
| Fubon Guardians | 3 | 5 |
| Chinatrust Whales(defunct) | 0 | 2 |
| China Times Eagles(defunct) | 0 | 1 |
| Macoto Cobras(defunct) | 0 | 1 |
| Mercuries Tigers(defunct) | 0 | 1 |
The Taiwan Series was not held in 1992, 1994 and 1995 because the Brother Elephants and the Uni-President Lions had won the titles by virtue of winning both half-seasons.
An all-star game has been held since 1990.
Ahome run derby has been held since 1992. It is usually held the day before the all-star game. The most recent winner isTseng Song-En of theCTBC Brothers, in 2025.
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Cheersticks are a pair of plastic sticks, often seen at baseball games in Taiwan. They are banged together to make noise and to cheer on players.
