Japan’s star Senga says it’s ‘surreal’ to join Mets
NEW YORK: Japanese pitcher Kodai Senga joined the New York Mets on Monday, taking his place alongside idols Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander in the Major League Baseball club’s starting roster.
“It almost feels surreal,” Senga said through a translator at a news conference, showing off his new uniform after completing a five-year deal reportedly worth US$75 million.
“I’m very happy and excited to be in the Big Apple,” Senga said in English. “Let’s go Mets.”
The 29-year-old right-hander won five Japan Series titles with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and helped Japan win gold at last year’s Tokyo Olympics.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Kodai,” Mets general manager Billy Eppler said.
“We’ve scouted him from afar for a number of years and we knew when he hit free agency that we would want to make this day a reality.”
Mets manager Buck Showalter, this year’s National League Manager of the Year, and Eppler were among a host of Mets officials who met with Senga last month and convinced him New York was where he needed to play.
“The Mets really showed they wanted [me],” Senga said through a translator. “And also the opportunity to pitch with such great veteran pitchers,” calling World Series champion hurlers Scherzer and Verlander “legendary pitchers” known well in Japan.
Senga said he was excited to pitch for Mets fans, who last celebrated a World Series crown in 1986.
“I hope to live up to the highest of their expectations,” Senga said.
Senga had a 1.89 earned-run average with 159 strikeouts and 50 walks over 148 innings this year in Japan.
“As far as Kodai is concerned, he encompasses impact-level pitches and an impact-level arsenal,” Eppler said.
Senga has taken advice from countryman Yu Darvish, a former Japan League star who has pitched for MLB clubs since 2012 and will face Senga’s Mets in National League games as a member of the San Diego Padres.
“He has given a lot of good advice,” Senga said.
The Mets ended a five-season playoff drought in 2022, losing in the first round to San Diego. They haven’t won a play-off series since reaching the 2015 World Series, where they lost to Kansas City.
BALL SELLS FOR $1.5 MILLION
A baseball hit by New York Yankees star Aaron Judge to break one of Major League Baseball’s most noted records has sold for $1.5 million, according to Goldin Auctions.
Bidding closed on Saturday night on the ball smashed by Judge for his 62nd home run of the 2022 season to break the one-season American League homer record set by former Yankee Roger Maris in 1961.
The unidentified buyer made a winning bid of $1.25 million with a $250,000 buyer’s premium to purchase the ball caught by fan Cory Youmans in the stands on Oct 4 at Arlington, Texas.
Judge, last season’s American League Most Valuable Player, has agreed a nineyear free agent deal worth $360 million to remain with the Yankees.
He smashed a 391-foot blast over the left-field wall off Texas Rangers pitcher Jesus Tinoco to set the new mark.
It was the second-highest price ever paid for a baseball, trailing the $3 million for what was then the MLB oneseason homer record ball, the 70th home run ball hit by Mark McGwire in 1998.
The record is 73 set by Barry Bonds playing for the San Francisco Giants in the National League in 2001.