Red Sox pitching prospect Chih-Jung “CJ” Liu put up some of the best strikeout numbers in the entire organization last season.
Liu, 24, spent all of 2023 with Double-A Portland after closing out the 2022 campaign there. In 26 appearances (24 starts) for the Sea Dogs, the right-hander posted a 5.35 FIP and 4.71 FIP with a team-leading 145 strikeouts to 61 walks over a team-leading 114 1/3 innings of work.
After an up-and-down April, Liu made headlines by tossing a seven-inning no-hitter in Game 1 of a doubleheader against the Akron RubberDucks on May 5. He then struggled to some degree as the calendar flipped from May to June and wound up spending more than a week on Portland’s development list as a result.
Upon returning to action on July 7, however, Liu put together his first double-digit strikeout game of the season, punching out 10 in seven strong innings as part of a 6-1 win over the Binghamton Rumble Ponies at home. He one-upped himself in his next time out — which did not come until July 18 because of the All-Star break — by fanning a career-high of 11 over 5 2/3 innings in a 9-8 victory over the New Hampshire Fisher Cats at Hadlock Field.
On the heels of racking up 21 strikeouts to kick off his July, Liu owned a respectable 4.25 ERA (4.23 FIP) through his first 16 starts (78 1/3 innings) for the Sea Dogs. Unfortunately for the righty, things began to unravel from there as he pitched to an unsightly 8.69 ERA (6.76 FIP) over his next eight starts (29 innings) before moving to Portland’s bullpen in early September.
While pitching in relief, which is something he did with High-A Greenville in 2022, Liu was at least able to end his season on a more encouraging note. He made two appearances out of the ‘pen for the Sea Dogs and allowed three earned runs on six hits, three walks, and 12 strikeouts across seven frames in which he held opposing hitters to a .222 batting average against.
All things considered, it was an inconsistent year for Liu, who gave up more walks and home runs (19) than anyone else on Portland’s staff. Still, among 14 qualified pitchers in the Eastern League, Liu ranked second in strikeouts per nine innings (11.41), third in strikeout rate (28.4 percent), fifth in groundball rate (41.4 percent), first in swinging-strike rate (16.8 percent), and seventh in xFIP (3.90), per FanGraphs. He also led the pack in batting average on balls in play (3.54), which suggests that he may have been the victim of bad luck and/or poor defense behind him.
In addition to what he did for the Sea Dogs, Liu also pitched for Team Chinese Taipei at the 2022 Asian Games (postponed a year because of COVID-19) back in October. Playing alongside former Red Sox utility man Tzu-Wei Lin, Liu made two scoreless appearances spanning five innings of relief en route to helping Chinese Taipei take home a silver medal.
Altogether, the 2023 season marked Liu’s third in pro ball after he originally with the Red Sox for $750,000 as an international free agent coming out of Taiwan in October 2019. Though a two-way player as an amateur, the Tainan City native has stuck to pitching since making his professional debut in July 2021.
Fast forward nearly three years later, and Liu now stands at 6-feet and 185 pounds. Throwing from a three-quarters arm slot, he — as noted in his SoxProspects.com scouting report — operates with a four-pitch mix that consists of a 93-95 mph fastball that tops out at 98 mph, an 80-82 mph changeup that shows late, downward movement, an 83-86 mph slider that features 10-to-4 break, and a get-me-over 78-80 mph curveball.
Liu, who turns 25 in April, was eligible for the Rule 5 Draft this winter after being left off Boston’s 40-man roster. It was even reported that the Red Sox entertained trading Liu before the November deadline, but that obviously never came to fruition and he is still with the organization.
That being said, the same rules will apply to Liu this year. He is currently regarded by SoxProspects.com as the No. 54 prospect in Boston’s farm system and is projected to return to Portland for the start of the 2024 minor-league season, but will likely do so as a reliever as opposed to a starter. If his stuff sticks up and he refines his approach of the bullpen, Liu could be on the fast track to Triple-A Worcester before long.
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