Masahiro Tanaka, who will return to professional baseball and Rakuten for the first time in eight years, attended an enrollment meeting in Tokyo on the evening of the 30th, saying, "10 years after the Great East Japan Earthquake, I will be a free agent and can choose a team. I thought it was a meaningful timing for me, so I made this decision, "he revealed why he decided to return to Japan.
He expressed his enthusiasm, saying, "I am very excited to be thrown in front of Japanese fans. I want to show my growth."