Kodai Senga, who transferred to the Mets, "I will do my best to succeed in the United States"

Pitcher Kodai Senga, who transferred from professional baseball Softbank to the Mets of the major leagues, held a press conference in his hometown of New York and spoke of his enthusiasm, saying, "I will do my best to succeed in the United States."

29-year-old pitcher Senga signed a five-year contract with the Mets, aiming to transfer to the major leagues by exercising his FA = free agent rights, including overseas.

The American media reported that it was a large contract worth 75 million dollars in total over 5 years, approximately 10.2 billion yen in Japanese yen, and Senga held a press conference on the 19th at Citi Field, the home of the Mets.

First, after wearing a brand new Mets uniform and showing a smile, he said in English, "I'm excited to be in the Big Apple. Let's Go Mets!" introduced.

The uniform number was "41" in the Softbank era, but Tom Seaver, who won a total of 311 wins in the Mets, wore it when he was active, and it has already become a permanent number, so it has become "34".

The day before the press conference, Senga posted the candidate's uniform number on his SNS and solicited opinions from fans, saying, "Since the fan chose me, I will do my best to make it my own number. I was really excited to be able to come to America, and I'm still filled with happiness."

Regarding the reason for choosing the Mets, he said, "There are veteran pitchers," and the 39-year-old Verlander pitcher with a total of 244 wins and the 38-year-old Scherzer pitcher with a total of 201 wins are on the team. I came here with the desire to learn and learn from such legends, and I am here now with the desire to do my best to succeed in the United States."

What is the Mets that Chiga will transfer to?

The New York-based Mets were founded in 1962 and have won two World Series titles.

Japanese players belonged to professional baseball, Nippon Ham manager Tsuyoshi Shinjo, Lotte manager Rihito Yoshii, and Seibu manager Kazuo Matsui.

New York-born investor Steven Cohen bought the team two years ago and became the owner of the team. They finished 2nd in the Eastern Division and advanced to the playoffs for the first time in six years.

This off is the first World Series since 1986, including the acquisition of Verlander, who has won 244 wins in total, the highest number of active wins, although DeGrom, an ace pitcher who has won the Cy Young Award twice, transferred to the Rangers. We are strengthening our efforts to win the championship.

Senga refuses to participate in the WBC representative training camp and the first round

After the press conference, Senga was asked by the press about participating in the WBC = World Baseball Classic, which will be held in March next year, and said, "I really want to help even a little."

However, considering that the tournament will be held just before the start of the season in the first year of the major league, he said, "I honestly can't imagine going through the first training camp in the majors, and I can't do that. I also talked with manager Kuriyama, but in Japan I can't participate in the tournament or pre-game camp," and denied participation in the national training camp before the tournament and the first round in Tokyo starting on March 9.

After that, ``If I participate, someone has to stay in Japan, so I feel sorry. I was told," he said.

Regarding the WBC, Shohei Otani of the Angels, Yu Darvish of the Padres, and Seiya Suzuki of the Cubs have already announced their participation. I haven't heard the side's judgment yet, so I don't know."