SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) — Matt Wieters made the All-Star team last season, won a Gold Glove and started to fulfill much of the promise he showed as a hot prospect in the Baltimore Orioles farm system.
Now if the 25-year-old catcher can learn Mandarin and Japanese, he should be all set.
Wieters has his hands full this spring while the Orioles try to establish a rotation from about a dozen candidates. That includes Taiwanese left-hander Wei-Yin Chen and Japanese lefty Tsuyoshi Wada.
Wieters says he is trying to spend as much time with the new faces as possible so he can establish a rapport before the regular season begins.
Wieters hit .262 with 22 homers and 68 RBIs last season and threw out 37 percent of base runners who tried to steal on him.
