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Pirates Sign 18-Year-Old Pitcher From China

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The Pittsburgh Pirates have signed 18-year-old right-handed pitcher Haicheng Gong as an international free agent. He pitched for China during the 2017 World Baseball Classic, allowing one hit, while recording one out. He is the second players to sign out of MLB’s Development Center in China. Gong first attended the center in 2012.

Gong is 6’2″, 165 pounds and turned 18 in December. Last summer, he spent eight weeks at a Baseball Academy held by the Lakewood BlueClaws, Low-A team of the Philadelphia Phillies. The camp was set up to help Chinese players get accustomed to American baseball and culture. In September, he was named the best right-handed pitcher during the U18 Baseball Federation of Asia Championship Tournament, which also included teams from Japan and Korea. Gong pitched six shutout innings against the Philippines in that tournament, striking out eight batters.

Here is video of Gong, who reportedly hits 90 MPH with his fastball, though it is 84-87 MPH in this clip from March. That was up from 81-84 MPH in a tournament from last September:

We have updated our international signing tracker, which now includes 23 players signed since July 2, 2016. The Pirates also sent along a photo of Gong agreeing to his deal. He is shaking hands with Roger Chiang, who is an international scout for the Pirates. For accuracy sake, the Pirates list his name as Hai-Cheng, which is different from everywhere else.

John Dreker
John Dreker
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball. When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.

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