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Chinese League Baseball increased the service time required to reach free agency from eight years to nine years. This made CLB among the most restrictive of the world leagues. CLB hadn’t adjusted this rule prior to 2019 and remained at nine years through the 2037 season.



Shijiazhuang took the top spot in the Northern League at 97-65 for back-to-back playoff berths and their third in four years. This was the first time the Serpents had finished first place since joining in the 2009 expansion. Shenyang, the NL runner-up in the last two seasons, was a close second at 94-68. There were then five teams within three games of third place fighting for the final two playoff spots.

Advancing was Changchun (89-73) and Harbin (88-74), while falling short was defending China Series winner Nanjing (87-75), Shanghai (86-76), and Xi’an (86-76). The 2016-17 champ Camels bounced back after their surprisingly awful 68-94 in 2018. The Hellcats earned repeat wild cards. The Attack scored the most runs in the NL at 583, while Harbin allowed the fewest at 438.

Nanjing’s Kenny Sang repeated as Northern League MVP. Still in only his third season, the 25-year old second baseman led in runs (101), home runs (60), slugging (.698), and WAR (13.2). It was only the 11^th time that a CLB position player had 13+ WAR in a season and was one of only four 60+ home run seasons. Sang also had a 1.041 OPS and 253 wRC+.

Changchun’s Ta Choi won Pitcher of the Year and posted only the sixth-ever pitching Triple Crown in CLB history. The 27-year old Hongkonger had a 20-6 record, 1.39 ERA, and 346 strikeouts. Choi also led in WHIP (0.77) and posted a 199 ERA+ and 8.4 WAR over 233.1 innings. He had a few more good seasons, but would shockingly regress and be out of the game by age 32 due to the yips.

In the Round Robin, Changchun (5-1) took top honors, advancing to the semifinal along with 3-3 Shenyang. Top seed Shijiazhuang and Harbin both were ousted at 2-4. This set up a rematch of the 2017 semifinal between the Camels and Swans. The series went all seven games and ended in dramatic fashion with a 3-1 walkoff Changchun win. The Camels have earned three finals berths in four years, while Shenyang has lost in three straight semifinal tries.



For the third consecutive season, Shantou took first in the Southern League standings at 99-63. The Scorpions earned their fourth straight playoff berth and fifth in six years. Tying for second at 96-66 was defending SL champ Hong Kong and Wenzhou. The Wild earned their first-ever playoff berth and were the last of the 2009 expansion teams to earn a berth. The Champions led in scoring at 642 and Shenzhen allowed the fewest at 475.

There was a 12 game gap from third to fourth place. 84-78 Foshan took the final playoff spot with eight other teams within seven games of them. Dongguan (82-80), Guangzhou (82-80), and Chengdu (81-81) were the closest foes. The Flyers earned repeat wild card berths. Wuhan, who took second last year at 96-66, tied for ninth at 79-83.

Shantou 1B Xugang Zheng won his second Southern League MVP in three years and again earned a Triple Crown. It was the seventh Triple Crown hitting season in CLB history, joining Cheng Kang as the only players to do it multiple times. Zheng led in homers (61), RBI (134), runs (114), hits (201), total bases (419), triple slash (.336/.381/.699), OPS (1.080), wRC+ (233), and WAR (10.8). His 61 homers were the third-most in CLB history. Zheng played one more year for the Scorpions, then left CLB for a six-year, $65,400,000 deal with Port Harcourt of West African Baseball.

The Pitcher of the Year also came from Shantou in 30-year old Mark Luo. In his seventh season, Luo led in WHIP (0.71), K/BB (14.4), and shutouts (6). He added a 1.65 ERA over 212.2 innings, 230 strikeouts, 12-7 record, 13 saves, 175 ERA+, and 6.1 WAR. The Scorpions also would be able to lock Luo up long-term, leaving for the 2022 season for Omsk of Eurasian Professional Baseball.

Despite being by far the weakest playoff team, Foshan was the top team in the Round Robin at 4-2 to earn repeat semifinal berths. Hong Kong and Wenzhou were both 3-3, while top-seed Shantou was 2-4. The Champions advanced on the tiebreaker to set up the semifinal rematch with the Flyers. Hong Kong earned the repeat, rolling 4-1 over Foshan for their sixth China Series berth.



In the 50^th China Series, Hong Kong handled Changchun 4-1 to give the Champions their third CLB title (1982, 2007, 2019). Pitcher Min-Yen Fu was finals MVP, posting a 1.24 ERA over 36.1 playoff innings with 50 strikeouts, 21 hits, 8 walks, and a 229 ERA+. In the series, the 27-year old Taiwanese lefty had a three-hit shutout with 11 strikeouts.



Other notes: Changchun’s Zhifeng Gao set a playoff record with a 16.82 K/9, fanning 38 over 20.1 innings. Nanjing’s Youzu Linn broke his own strikeout record with 279 whiffs, which remains the CLB all-time worst as of 2037. Linn is the only CLB batter to strike out 250+ times in a season, am unfortunate feat he’d reach ten times. Linn retired after the 2020 season with 3090 strikeouts, making him CLB’s bigger whiffer by a healthy margin. As of 2037, he’s one of 29 batters in world history with 3000+ career strikeouts. OF Cheng Kang won his eighth Silver Slugger.

Chinese League Baseball in the 2010s was again the lowest-scoring league in the world with a batting average around .215 and ERA around 2.54. Both marks grade as extremely low in the historical scale, although it was about the same as the prior decade. 2015 had all-time CLB lows in batting average with the NL at .205 and the SL at .203. The NL also had a 2.28 ERA in 2015, which is tied for the lowest-ever season in baseball history. Like most leagues in the 2020s, CLB would change rules to increase offense, bringing them to merely very low scoring as opposed to extremely low.