Tzu-Wei Lin #5

Tzu-Wei Lin (pronounced ZOO-way)…Twitter: @TzuWeiLin1994...he and his wife, Kai-Li Jhu, have a daughter, Shin-En Lin (born September 2017)…won tournament MVP honors after hitting .607 in 32 PA over seven games for Taiwan at the 2010 World Junior Championship...during spring training in 2018, attended Casino Night at JetBlue Park, an event that benefits the Red Sox Foundation.

2020

Played in 11 games for the Red Sox in spring training, hitting .409 (9-for-22) with two walks...made first career Opening Day roster and spent entire season with Boston...Entered the Red Sox game on Aug. 13 vs. TB in the 9th inning at shortstop...moved to catcher for the final two outs of the inning, his first career appearance at catcher...became the first Red Sox player in club history to play shortstop and catcher in the same game (source: Elias)…On Sept. 24 vs. Baltimore, entered in the eighth inning at shortstop, where he played 1.0 inning before making his first career pitching appearance in the ninth inning (1.0 IP, 3 R, 4 H)…Appeared in 26 games (13 starts)…appeared in 12 games (four starts) at shortstop, six games (3 starts) at second base, four games (3 starts) in left, three games (2 starts) in right, two games (1 start) in center and once at pitcher, once at catcher...joined Jack Rothrock (1928) as the only players in Red Sox history to appear at each of those seven positions in a season...no major leaguer had done that since Andrew Romine in 2017 (nine positions)…prior to 2020, Lin had never played left field or right field, pitched, caught or served as a designated hitter at the ML level.

2019

Spent most of the season with Triple-A Pawtucket, also appearing in 13 games over 2 stints with BOS...Appeared defensively for the PawSox at SS (27 starts), 2B (15), LF (6), CF (3), and RF (2)...Spent time on the major league injured list from 5/4- 6/30 (left knee sprain) and minor league injured list from 8/27 through the end of the season (concussion)...After the season, helped Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) win the Asian Baseball Championship, its first title since 2001...Began the season with Pawtucket, playing in 1 game for the PawSox before being recalled by BOS on 4/6...Exited Boston's game in the top of the 2nd inning on 5/3 at CWS and was placed on the IL with a left knee sprain...Did not play in the majors for the rest of 2019...Played for Pawtucket on 2 rehab assignments...Hit .331 (5-for-16) with 3 RBI over 5 games from 6/8-13 and .263 (5-for-19) with 2 RBI over 5 games from 6/26-30...Played for Pawtucket on 2 rehab assignments...Hit .331 (5-for-16) with 3 RBI over 5 games from 6/8-13 and .263 (5-for-19) with 2 RBI over 5 games from 6/26-30...In 15 games from 7/23-8/11, hit .350/.403/.483/.886 with 10 RBI (21-for-60, 9 R, 2 2B, 2 HR, 6 BB)...Recorded his lone multi-HR contest of 2019 on 8/6 at Columbus, going 2-for-3 with 2 R, 2 HR, 3 RBI, and 1 BB...Placed on the 7-day IL on 8/29 (retroactive to 8/27) with a concussion, an injury he sustained vs. Scranton/ Wilkes-Barre on 8/26...Missed the remainder of 2019...Following the season, played for Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) in the Asian Baseball Championship...Did not play in the opening round, but appeared in 3 of the club's 5 final games during the Super Round.

2018

2018: Played 37 games over 5 stints with the Red Sox...Made 9 starts at SS, 2 at 2B, 1 at 3B, and 1 in CF. Also played 68 games for Triple-A Pawtucket, batting .307/.362/.448/.810 (85-for-277, 33 R, 20 2B, 2 3B, 5 HR)...Played 51 games at SS, 9 in CF, and 2 at 3B. Entered the season ranked by Baseball America as the No. 21 prospect in the Red Sox organization. Hit safely in 44 of his final 50 games with the PawSox (beginning 5/27), batting .336 (71-for-211) in that time. Was recalled by BOS for the 1st time on 4/10...The Sox won the first 7 games in which he played. Recorded multiple hits in 3 straight ML games from 4/13-15 vs. BAL (.545/6-for-11, 2 R, 2 2B, RBI, BB). Began his final stint with BOS on 9/1 and appeared in 17 more games, batting .381/.458/.810 (8-for-21) with 12 runs scored, 4 2B, 3B, HR, 5 RBI. Recorded 6 XBH in his final 18 ML at-bats from 9/16-30, posting an .889 SLG (4 2B, 3B, HR) with 9 runs and 5 RBI. Hit his 1st career HR in the Sox' 7-5 win at CLE on 9/21...Gave the Red Sox a lead with an RBI single in the 7th and hit a solo HR in the 9th. In a doubleheader on 9/26 vs. BAL, hit a 2-run 2B in Game 1 and a game-tying 3B in Game 2. Hit safely in 16 straight Triple-A games from 5/27-6/14, batting .343 (23-for-67, 5 2B, 2 HR) with a .905 OPS. Hit game-winning HR in consecutive PawSox games on 5/29 & 5/31 at Norfolk. In 21 minor league games from 6/17-8/15, hit .435 (37-for-85) with 8 2B, 2 3B, 2 HR, and 13 RBI. Recorded a single-game career-high 3 2B with Pawtucket on 6/20 vs. Buffalo. Had a season-high 4 hits on 8/10 at Indianapolis.

2017

Made his ML debut with 25 games (15 starts) over 2 stints for the Red Sox, batting .268 (15-for-56) with a .369 OBP...Had never played above the Double-A level prior to his ML debut...Was 1 of 5 players-and the only position player-born in Taiwan to appear in a ML game in 2017. Became the 2nd Taiwan-born player to appear on a Red Sox ML roster, joining OF Che-Hsuan Lin, who played in 9 games for BOS in 2012. Appeared defensively for the Red Sox at 2B (10 G, 3 GS), 3B (9 G, 6 GS), and SS (6 G, 6 GS). In ML games he started, hit .306 (15-for-49) with a .404 OBP...Reached base in 12 of his 15 starts. Drew 9 BB in 66 ML plate appearances (7.33 PA/BB). Wore #73 for BOS before switching to #5 at the All-Star break. Also played 83 minor league games between Double-A Portland and Triple-A Pawtucket, batting .267 (80-for-300) with 14 2B, 4 3B, a career-high 7 HR, 28 RBI, and 10 SB. In the minors, made 46 starts at SS, 25 in CF, 5 at 2B, and 2 at 3B...Hit 7 HR after entering the season with 6 HR over his first 5 minor league seasons. Began the season with Portland and scored the game-winning run on Opening Day on 4/7 vs. Reading. Hit safely in 15 straight games with an AB from 4/10-5/3, batting .404 with a 1.167 OPS in those games (21-for-52, 4 2B, 3B, 3 HR). Homered in 3 of 4 games from 4/23-29. Through 5/23, was hitting .341 (28-for-82) with a .956 OPS in 27 games with Portland. Reached base 5 times, including 3 XBH, on 6/8 vs. Akron (2 2B, HR, 3 RBI, 2 BB) ...Tied the game in the 8th inning with a 3-run HR. Went 7-for-10 with 4 XBH in his final 2 games with Portland (6/21-23), going 5-for-5 with a 2B and a 3B on 6/21 at Erie. Selected to the ML roster on 6/24 and made his debut that day vs. LAA as a pinch runner in the 9th inning. Appeared in the field for the first time on 6/25 vs. LAA, entering in the 8th inning at 3B. Made his 1st ML start on 6/26 vs. MIN (3B) and singled off José Berríos in his 1st PA...Became the 8th player-and 4th position player-born in Taiwan to record a hit in a ML game. Tripled in his 6th ML game on 6/29 vs. MIN and in his 8th game on 7/2 at TOR... Became the 1st Red Sox player with multiple triples within their first 8 ML games since Johnny Pesky in 1942. Reached base a career-high 4 times on 7/4 at TEX, going 3-for-4 with a BB... Also drove in his first 2 career runs and stole his first base. Through 10 ML games (6/24-7/4), was hitting .360/.429/.520 (9-for-25, 5 R, 2 3B, 3 BB). Recorded 3 hits 3 times in an 8-game span from 7/2-9. Optioned to Pawtucket following a doubleheader vs. the Yankees on 7/16... Tripled for his first Triple-A hit on 7/19 vs. Toledo...The following day, went 3-for-5 vs. Norfolk (2B, RBI). Recalled on 9/2 for his 2nd ML stint and spent the rest of the season with BOS...Went 1-for-3 that day at NYY.