By Matt Rappa, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Manny Machado, Bryce Harper, Patrick Corbin and J.A. Happ are not the only players the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees are, and have, competed to acquire this offseason.
According to the Taiwan-based The Liberty Times, the Phillies, Yankees, Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds are among the teams interested in 18-year-old Chengde High School superutility player, Chen Sheng-Ping.
18-year-old high school infielder 陳聖平 (Chen Sheng-Ping) might play abroad next year. According to Liberty Sports, the Yankess, Mariners, Reds, Phillies are interested in Chen. #TWHSBaseball pic.twitter.com/PjMIYp0VXJ
— CPBL STATS (@GOCPBL) December 26, 2018
The Hsinchu City's Sheng-Ping, according to Reddit user PNR_Robots, can play all infield positions, including catcher. Catcher is Sheng-Ping's primary position, however he "can play shortstop and second base well, too."
"He is also known to pitch every now and then when he is needed by his team," PNR_Robots writes. "He was recently named the NIKE baseball elite camp MVP and the Taiwan U-18 All-Star Game MVP."
Sheng-Ping will reportedly head to the United States in 2019 to "play and study," according to the Times, who writes (translation):
Qiu Yuda, the director of Chengde High School, said that the school baseball team has been established for many years. In recent years, the results have been achieved. … Currently, there are 56 students in high school and 64 students in the middle school. It is a key school for training three-level baseball in Zhucheng City. Chen [Sheng-Ping], who has transferred to the Chengde High School baseball team after graduating from Taoyuan Luzhu Guangming in China, is a good player who has rarely seen in recent years.
As PNR_Robots notes, high schoolers like Sheng-Ping are not required to be posted. "Overseas teams," like the Phillies, are free to sign any Taiwanese player after high school. However, if the player decides to join the CPBL (Taiwan's professional league), the player then must accumulate three years of service before they can be posted.
Sheng-Ping would not be the first teenager to recently join the Phillies from Taiwan. In September, the organization signed 19-year-old RHP Hsu Chi-Ling, who can reach nearly 92 miles per hour (148 kilometers per hour). In June, they signed 19-year-old RHP Lin Hsin-Chieh. The Phillies also scouted LHP/RF Lin An-Ko in July.
Not many would have expected the Phillies and Yankees to battle over an 18-year-old player in Taiwan, but it is only fitting among the craziness this offseason has been thus far in the Machado and Harper sweepstakes.
