DJ Suonandajie shows interest for MLB draft

By: William Tian

DJ Suonandajie is one of many Chinese baseball players playing for American colleges. His goal, like that of many others, is to go to the MLB. These players work and train hard so they can become baseball superstars.

Fnu Suonadajie is from the Qinghai province in the Tibet region. His family immigrated to America when he was a kid. Young Sounadajie asked Americans to call him DJ.

Suondajie started playing ball when he was 10. He was discovered in Tibet byMLB recruiters in 2011. The recruiters were impressed by his foot speed and throwing accuracy. He said it was an easy task to do because of the jobs he did in Tibet. Suondajie started training in China, in a program offering not only academic schooling, but also baseball. The first development center was built in Wuxi in 2009. A couple years later, the program opened another center in Changzhou in 2011, and built another center 3 years later in Nanjing.

DJ is 5 feet and 8 inches, and plays center field and bats lead off. He trained with his coach Ray Chang, who was raised in America, but started working full time in China in 2017.

He had a 12-season minor league career, and started off in the San Diego Padres team. DJ was originally going to do other sports like basketball, soccer, tennis, or ping pong, but instead he came to the US and got a spot at the Los Angeles Harbor. He graduated there last year and got a degree in communications. Couple months later, he got a full scholarship to play baseball for Rockhurst University in Kansas.

DJ will be graduating college at Rockhurst and once he graduates he is eligible for the MLB draft. MLB are still negotiating if they should create an international draft, but for the system right now they only limit amateur playing in US and Canada.

Source:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1658070437704x553320519419093570/DJ%20Suonandajie%20and%20Other%20Chinese%20Players%20Sets%20Sights%20on%20MLB%20Draft%20-%20The%20New%20York%20Times.pdf