CTBC Brothers' Dominican pitcher José de Paula became the first international player to be MVP of the Year for two years in a row in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) after he was named the league's most valuable player for 2021 on Monday.
The southpaw pitcher, who is from the Dominican Republic, first won MVP of the Year in 2020 when he first came to Taiwan to play for the Taichung-based CTBC Brothers, which finished as runners-up that year.
De Paula then won the award for the second consecutive year in 2021 after leading the Brothers to the Taiwan Series title.
The 33-year-old appeared in 26 games in 2021, of which he started 25, and led the season with 187 strikeouts, while posting a dominating 1.77 ERA (earned run average).
De Paula won the award ahead of Canadian pitcher Brock Dykxhoorn of the Uni-President Lions and Taiwanese infielder Yu Hsien Chu (???) of the Rakuten Monkeys. He is the second international player to win the MVP of the Year award twice, but the first to win it two years in a row.
The first international player to win MVP of the Year twice was American Mike Garcia, who won the award in 1997 and 2004 while pitching for the Wei Chuan Dragons and Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions, respectively.
The MVP of the Year award has been given out annually since 1993.
Currently overseas, de Paula said in an online video that he thanked God for giving him the opportunity to win because the award is very important to him.
"Meanwhile, congratulations to all the strong pitchers from the other teams. At the same time I know we all need to improve for the next season. If God allows, I hope CTBC Brothers and the city of Taichung will again win the title," de Paula said.
Despite dominating the season with the most strikeouts and best ERA, de Paula was credited for 16 wins, one less than the 17 registered by Dykxhoorn.
In baseball, a win is credited to the pitcher whose team takes and maintains the lead until the end of the game while being the pitcher of record.
Born in 1988 in Villa Mella, Dominican Republic, de Paula played in various minor league teams from 2007 to 2015 that were affiliated with the San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, and New York Yankees.
He made his Major League Baseball (MLB) debut in 2015, when he pitched 3.1 innings for the Yankees.
After leaving the MLB, de Paula continued to pitch in the Dominican Winter League and Mexican League before signing with the CTBC Brothers in 2020.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel