Former Colorado Rockies catcher Wilin Rosario signs to play in Taiwan

According to the Taipei Times, former Colorado Rockies catcher Wilin Rosario has signed to play with the Uni-President Lions of Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League.

Rosario, who turns 33 next month, played for the Rockies in parts of five seasons from 2011 through 2015. He hasn’t played in the major leagues since he played with the Rockies but he has played elsewhere.

Former Colorado Rockies catcher Wilin Rosario is heading to play in Taiwan.

Former Colorado Rockies catcher Wilin Rosario is headed to play in Taiwan after playing in numerous places.

In 2021, Rosario played in the Mexican League and in the Dominican Winter League in a combined 41 games (almost exclusively as a DH) with a .306 average and an OPS of .844.

He only played in the Dominican Winter League in 2020 but in 2019, he played with the Minnesota Twins at the Triple-A level. He hit .300 with a .843 OPS with 20 homers and 91 RBI in 105 games. However, he didn’t get a call up to the majors. That is his only other stint with an affiliated team since he was with the Rockies in 2015.

Between 2016 and 2018, he played in both Japan and Korea.

For the Rockies, Rosario was a good player for a few years but then his poor defense caught up with him and the offensive skills waned.

In his first two full seasons in the majors (2012 and 2013), he averaged 24 homers and 75 RBI with a .282/.314/.507, and an OPS+ of 107 in an average of 119 games per season. He had a combined rWAR of 3.8.

In the following two seasons, he saw his power decrease, which was Rosario’s calling card. The Rockies moved him out from catcher to first base in 2015 after Rosario led the league in passed balls in three straight seasons (2012-14) with 42 total. He also was in the top five in errors among catchers in the NL in each of those three seasons as well.

For the last two seasons, former Colorado Rockies pitcher Tim Melville has also pitched for the Uni-President Lions so the Colorado Rockies could have two former Rockies on that team in 2022.