{"id":161209,"date":"2026-09-16T04:59:27","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T08:59:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/sin-categoria\/tigres-del-licey-reinforce-their-pitching-with-pitcher-cj-van-eyk-in-lidom\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T04:59:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T08:59:27","slug":"tigres-del-licey-reinforce-their-pitching-with-pitcher-cj-van-eyk-in-lidom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/national\/tigres-del-licey-reinforce-their-pitching-with-pitcher-cj-van-eyk-in-lidom\/","title":{"rendered":"Tigres del Licey reinforce their pitching with pitcher CJ Van Eyk in LIDOM"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Tigres del Licey bolster their rotation with pitcher CJ Van Eyk<\/h2>\n\n<p>The Tigres del Licey have officially announced the signing of American right-handed pitcher CJ Van Eyk, who will join the blue team&#8217;s starting rotation for the 2026-27 season of the Dominican Professional Baseball League (LIDOM). With this addition, the Licey management seeks to strengthen their pitching and maintain the competitiveness that characterizes the organization.<\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Profile and career of the new signing<\/h3>\n\n<p>Van Eyk, 27, a native of Tampa, Florida, has a solid background within the Toronto Blue Jays organization. Standing six feet one inch tall and weighing 198 pounds, the right-hander arrives after seeing action with the Buffalo Bisons, Toronto&#8217;s Triple-A affiliate. His projection within the Blue Jays&#8217; system has been notable, being ranked as the franchise&#8217;s number 18 prospect in 2024.<\/p>\n\n<p>The pitcher had his baptism of fire in the Major Leagues on July 12, when he was promoted to the 40-man roster. Five days later, he officially debuted against the Chicago White Sox, completing two scoreless innings and recording his first strikeout at the highest level of professional baseball.<\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A versatile and effective repertoire<\/h3>\n\n<p>One of Van Eyk&#8217;s greatest strengths is his ability to keep opposing hitters off balance through a wide range of pitches. According to the 2026 season statistics, the pitcher stands out for:<\/p>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Variety of fastballs:<\/strong> Uses a combination of four-seam (averaging 93 mph), sinker (91.7 mph), and cutter (89 mph), the latter being one of his most lethal weapons by generating a 26% whiff rate.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Breaking pitches:<\/strong> Complements his repertoire with a sharp curveball at 81.1 mph and a changeup at 83.1 mph, both effective for inducing swings and misses from batters.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>Van Eyk&#8217;s ability to mix and distribute his pitches allows him to constantly modify his sequences, which makes it difficult for batters to read him and solidifies him as a key piece for the Licey starting rotation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Professional background<\/h3>\n\n<p>CJ Van Eyk&#8217;s professional career began in 2020, when he was selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in the second round of the Major League Baseball Draft, holding the 42nd overall pick. After signing a $1.8 million deal, the pitcher has worked hard on his development, now establishing himself as a strategic bet for Dominican winter baseball. During his time in the minor leagues in 2026, he accumulated a 6-5 record, with a 4.20 ERA in 23 appearances, 17 of them as a starter.<\/p>\n\n<p>With this move, the Tigres del Licey reaffirm their commitment to building a solid and balanced team, betting on arms with experience in the MLB system that can provide depth and quality to the starting pitching during the upcoming LIDOM season.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tigres del Licey bolster their rotation with pitcher CJ Van Eyk The Tigres del Licey have officially announced the signing of American right-handed pitcher CJ Van Eyk, who will join the blue team&#8217;s starting rotation for the 2026-27 season of the Dominican Professional Baseball League (LIDOM). With this addition, the Licey management seeks to strengthen [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":161210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12809],"tags":[88,15874,3493,1279],"class_list":{"0":"post-161209","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-national","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cj-van-eyk","10":"tag-licey-tigers","11":"tag-lidom"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}