Career
Chen is a Taiwanese aborigine of Siraya tribal ancestry. In 1999 in the Cal League with Class-A San Bernardino in 1999, he batted.316/.404/.580 with 31 homers, 31 steals, 123 RBIs and 75 walks. Along with outfielder Joc Pederson who did it in American Automobile Association in 2014, he is one of only two Los Angeles Dodger minor leaguers to have a 30 home run, 30 stolen bases season.
Chen became the first Taiwanese baseball player to play in Major League baseball when he made his debut on September 14, 2002.
He played for the Los Angeles Dodgers in parts of the 2002-2005 seasons, but only sparingly. In 2005, Chen was reluctant to accept a designation for assignment back to Dodgers" Las Vegas 51s American Automobile Association team, and try out with another major league team
In 2006, after struggling to make the 25-man roster with the Dodgers, Chen tried out for the Japanese professional league (NPB), and eventually decided to play in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) in Taiwan. In 2005, Chen was the first Taiwanese position player to ever get a hit in Major League Baseball.
However, Chinese-hui Tsao had earlier become the first Taiwanese player to get a hit in the Majors as a pitcher, with the Colorado Rockies on August 18, 2003.
After his contract with the Dodgers organization expired after the 2005 season, Chen announced on December 26, 2005, that he would not return to North America for the 2006 season, but would instead enter the CPBL draft. He was promptly selected by the Louisiana New Bears. Chen had completed his first complete baseball season at the hometown Taiwan in 2006.
He ranked first on many aspects such as the highest batting average and 81 RBIs for the whole season.
Later on in the second Asian baseball tournament, he showed the best performance again and gained attention from several Japanese and Korean teams, including the Orix Buffaloes. But, Chen did not sign with them and remained in Taiwan.
Since Chen"s debut, other Taiwanese baseball players have played in the MLB: Chien-Ming Wang with the New York Yankees and Washington Nationals and Toronto Blue Jays, Fu-Te Ni with the Detroit Tigers, Wei-Yin Chen of the Baltimore Orioles, and former Dodgers Hong-Chih Kuo and Chinese-Lung Hu.
