Who is Tzu-Wei Lin?

Boston outrighted Lin this past October after he spent the previous eight seasons with the organization; he was originally signed by the club out of Taiwan in 2012.

The signing of Lin seems to provide further evidence to the foregone conclusion that Ehire Adrianza - and to a lesser extent Marwin Gonzalez - will not be returning to the Twins after four successful yet unremarkable seasons.

Lin topped out as the 16th best prospect in the Red Sox’s system before making his major league debut in 2017. During his time in Boston, he was billed as a defensive Swiss Army knife of sorts, being able to play virtually every position in the field. He appeared at every position save for first base over the first 101 games of his career, though 70% of his time has been spent at either shortstop or second base.

However, despite his perceived versatility, Lin’s defensive numbers leave much to be desired across a small sample.

https://twitter.com/seehafer_/status/1335257387276570624

According to FanGraphs, Lin grades as a decent second baseman (2.1) and shows some potential at third base (0.9) in terms of career UZR - the equivalent of 14.9 and 21.9 career UZR/150, respectively - but falls flat virtually everywhere else. So, he can do everything, but nothing particularly well; he’s less a Swiss Army knife and more a poor generic brand facsimile.

Offensively, Lin has less pop than a popgun. His average exit velocity (85.7 mph) and barrel percentage (2.9%) fall well below the league average (88.3 and 6.4%, respectively) according to Baseball Savant, and he’s only ever launched one home run across 218 plate appearances.

https://twitter.com/seehafer_/status/1335258980956954628

Lin has fairly good plate discipline boasting career 9.6% walk and 25.7% chase percentages - both considered well above average - however, he rarely makes opposing pitchers pay for having to throw him strikes. His slow swing velocity and overall lack of power - even extrabase power - doesn’t prevent pitchers from pounding the zone.

In essence, the Twins’ signing of Tzu-Wei Lin is likely more of a low-risk, low-reward backup plan than a direct response to the pending departures of Adrianza and Gonzalez. His acquisition should not - and likely will not - prevent them from looking to sign or trade for a versatile defender in the vein of Kike Hernadez or Andrelton Simmons.

Signings like that of Lin’s are common occurrences in baseball as, at the very least, they help build the overall depth of a team’s farm system while being able to take an inexpensive flier on a young talent; Lin is only 26-years-old. In all likelihood, Lin will spend the majority of his time with the St. Paul Saints during the 2021 season, though his presence provides an available, if fleeting, stopgap should, say, Jorge Polanco or Luis Arraez suffer an injury and the Twins determine that Travis Blankenhorn and/or Royce Lewis are not quite ready for the big show.

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