Manager Kuriyama considers the difficulty of setting adjustments in the first year of the big challenge
It was revealed on the 27th that pitcher Kodai Senga, who transferred from Softbank to MLB’s Mets, will not participate in the Japanese baseball team “Samurai Japan,” which will participate in the WBC. The possibility of participating in the American round was also explored, but considering the difficulty of coordination in the first year of the big challenge, Manager Hideki Kuriyama ultimately decided not to invite him to Samurai Japan, including the decided American round.
After that, Chiga exercised his FA rights abroad and transferred to the Mets of the Premier League. This season will be the first year of the big challenge, fulfilling the dream that has been in my heart for many years. Chiga himself was keen to participate in WBC, and is said to have conveyed his enthusiasm to Director Kuriyama. The Mets side also explored the possibility of Senga joining the war, but after repeated discussions, Kuriyama, who wanted to prioritize Senga’s first year of transfer and the future, chose to remove him from the membership .
It appears that the difficulty of adjustment unique to pitchers was behind the commander’s decision. If the ball is different between NPB and MLB, the slope and hardness of the mound is also different. For pitchers in their first year of great challenge, it is necessary not only to get used to a new team or a foreign country, but also to adapt to such an environment. Compared to infielders, it is difficult to adjust pitchers, and Kuriyama, who sent pitchers Shohei Otani and Kohei Arihara to the majors, was well aware of this.
Red Sox outfielder Masanao Yoshida, also in his first year in the majors, is a member of the team, but the difficulty of adjusting is different for fielders and pitchers. The manager also checked Senga’s condition one by one, but if he was selected as a member of the WBC and adjusted at high speed, it would lead to injury, and he did not participate because of “parental affection” or would affect the first year of the main.
On this day, he visited the PayPay Dome, which he played as his home base until last season, and practiced pitching in the bullpen against his catcher “friend” Takuya Kai. Thanking Director Kuriyama for his consideration, he said, “I had a strong desire to participate. There is no doubt that I feel that way. I can only be a member of such a super team once in my life . However, this time there. no way. I feel like I’m not,” he said. The right-hander, who has decided not to participate in the “dream team”, will do his best to be active in the first year of the big league.
(Yusuke Fukutani / Yusuke Fukutani)
