Pitcher Yusei Kikuchi of the Major League Baseball Blue Jays entered camp in Florida and expressed his enthusiasm for his sixth season in the Major Leagues, saying, ``I want to stay in the rotation without getting injured and enjoy baseball.''
Pitcher Kikuchi, 32, won 11 games last season, his first double-digit win in the major leagues, and played a role in the starting rotation.
This season is the final year of his three-year contract with the Blue Jays, and he participated in the Battery camp that began on the 15th in Dunedin, Florida.
Pitcher Kikuchi had been practicing at the camp since the 6th of last month, and from the first day he entered the bullpen and threw about 30 pitches, highlighting his good condition.
Pitcher Kikuchi said, ``I think I got off to a good start with my body in good shape, and the bullpen was in good shape.I used to practice pitching in the bullpen every December, but this year I cut back on that and competed with high performance all year long. I've worked hard to build up my body to be able to do that."
The reason for this was that his performance had declined due to fatigue towards the end of last year's season, and he said, ``September was really full last year.I focused on increasing the size of my muscles until this month. "I've been gradually switching over to training to improve my explosive power starting this month."
When asked about this season being the final year of his contract with the team, he said, ``When I was with the Mariners or with Seibu, when I think of things like that, I put even more pressure on myself. "I keep telling myself that if I enjoy baseball, the results will definitely follow."
Demonstrates fluent English and calls out to fans
Pitcher Kikuchi showed off his fluent English in a video posted by the team on social media, smiling and telling fans, "Hey everyone, I promise this season is going to be great. I can't wait to see you all." I called out.