Exclusive Interview! Shintaro Fujinami reveals the whole truth about how he reached a contract agreement with the Athletics.

The rain had stopped, and the street was brightly lit by the light coming through the clouds. His face was hidden by a mask, but there was no disguising his 197 cm height.

Shintaro Fujinami, 28, who had been secretly visiting Tokyo just before leaving for the United States to sign with the Oakland Athletics, was surprised to see the reporter, but agreed to be interviewed, saying, “If you write about me properly.

Fujinami said that his decision to challenge the Major Leagues through the posting system, which seemed to come out of the blue, had actually been “a decision made more than a year ago.

In fact, around 2017 to 2018, when I wasn’t getting the results I wanted, scouts in charge of Asia approached me and asked if I would be interested in the majors or if I would like to try a change of environment. But at the time, my condition was so bad that it wasn’t a matter of changing the environment. I was so occupied with improving my condition that I couldn’t even think about challenging for the majors, but in 2021, I received a love call from a big-name agent. The Japanese person in charge at Scott Boras’s office said, “If you are still smoldering in Japan, why don’t you try the majors? FUJINAMI is highly regarded in the U.S., and I think we can get a major contract. Around the same time, I received a flurry of similar offers from completely unconnected sources, and I began to think, “Maybe this is the right time for me,” as if I was being guided.

I was strongly encouraged by my agent’s opinion that I could make it in the majors.

His control problems, which had been an issue for the past few years, were greatly improved, and his walk rate is now in the 7% range, which is better than the major league average. Even so, he had in mind the way he was used in the Hanshin League, where he had to move back and forth between the first and second teams and between starting and relieving positions.

In the last few years,” he said, “I have been able to go to the mound with more confidence because I don’t have the same loose pitches and hooked pitches that I used to have in the past. There are two main points. One is to be aware of the kainai (twisting the arm inward) that Masashi Yamamoto (57) used to tell me when he was my temporary coach. It was a big thing for me to have the feeling of holding my wrists up and releasing them. Another thing I learned from Tomoyuki Sugano (33) of the Giants during my voluntary training was to “kick my right foot in. When you start the pitching motion and shift your weight to the batter’s side, kick the mound firmly with your right foot so that your body will not open up. Mr. Kanno’s idea of “pitching is the lower body” was helpful. Even so, there were times when I suddenly couldn’t get strikes, but I was able to correct this during the game, such as by throwing more splits to get back into the game. The more I have struggled up to this point, the more I have been able to draw out steadily.

By the way However,…… the Hanshin pitching staff is one of the best in the league, so it was difficult for me to get a chance to pitch. The pitching coach followed up with me, but in the 2021 and 2022 seasons, I honestly felt that if I wasn’t going to use him, he should be traded to another team. I couldn’t talk to anyone about whether or not I wanted to try out for the majors. I couldn’t tell my teammates or even my parents. As I thought about it on my own, my feelings naturally hardened, saying, “I have to be prepared and compete. I had always felt that I needed to challenge myself more. I am proud of the fact that ever since I started playing baseball, I have grown by jumping into the next higher stage and putting the whip into myself.

Fujinami, who led Osaka Toin to consecutive Koshien spring and summer championships as an ace, laughs, “I wasn’t a great player in junior high school, and (Osaka Toin coach) Koichi Nishitani didn’t want to win me at all.

I had a senior in the Boys League who was in Osaka Toin, and when we played against each other in an alumni game, I got three or four strikeouts. It just so happened that my slider was really sharp that day. That senior recommended me to the manager, saying, ‘You should definitely get Fujinami,’ and so I got him in. In fact, when I talked to the manager after I graduated, he told me directly, ‘He didn’t seem to be fast, and I thought he was not a good player’ (laughs).

Prepared to be kicked to the curb, he told the team executives in the off-season of 2021 that he wanted to take on the challenge. However, the response was surprising.

I was wondering when you would say something like that,” he said. He also said, “Basically, I’ll accept it. They didn’t set any conditions for me to challenge for a major league contract, such as “if the team wins a championship” or “if I win 15 games or more. After informing the team of my intention, I contacted the people who had helped me. During the time when I was struggling, they told me, “Don’t think about the details, just swing your arm hard,” and “It’s a waste of time. Hideo Nomo, 54, who had encouraged me to try out for the majors, said, “Congratulations!　I will support you. Masashi Yamamoto was also very happy. Yutaka Take, 53, who shared his experience as a star athlete, including how he fought against pressure, said, ‘It’s okay.　You only live once,” he said. Judoka Shohei Ohno (30), who won gold medals in two consecutive Olympics, said, “I will support you. I would like to hear more about the process of your determination.

As Boras read, he received an offer from the Oakland Athletics to sign a major league contract, and they agreed on January 11. However, there was no “joy” for Fujinami.

I’ve been throwing official major league ball since the off-season of 2022, and it has a bigger change than the Japanese ball. I think the percentage of big sliders and two-seamers will increase. In the Majors, the big curveballs are the mainstream now. A high four-seam is also popular, so my 100 mph (about 160 km/h) straight ball may be effective. I took the step forward because I am confident that I can compete with major league hitters, but there is a possibility that it won’t work at all. Some people say that the majors have been “pitching high and hitting low” for the past few years, but the fact is that the main pitchers of each team have defensive ratios in the 3-point range. They are getting hit!　(laughs). (laughs). “I wonder if I will fit in with the team. (laughs). “I am also worried about the environment, ‘Will I fit in with the team?

Fujinami has reached a major milestone. The highlight of his 10 years as a professional in Japan was “the Climax Series in 2014 against the Giants. At the time, Fujinami was 20 years old, in his second year as a pro.

I started the first game, and we won the game with no outs in the 7th inning. That was a thrill for me. When the bases were loaded, I got all fired up and got Cepeda (42) to ground out to first to get the go-ahead run and Hirokazu Ibata (47) to fly out to first. On the other hand, the most difficult time for me was not …… this event, but from 2018 to 2019, mentally, it was pretty tough. I remember the moments when I was on the farm all the time, practicing in the morning and coming home in the evening, lying on the couch without the TV on and thinking, ‘What the hell am I doing here ……? But now I see the bad times and the hard times as part of the fun, or the flavor of life.

Fujinami has appeared several times in this magazine, but one of his most memorable moments was when he participated in a “cruise with 21 beautiful women” (August 9, 2013 issue) accompanied by his seniors Tsuyoshi Nishioka (38), Sho Nakata (33), and others from the Osaka Toin team. Why was he sitting alone in the last seat, looking so bored?

‘Ha ha. It was fun, but I was 19 at the time, so I didn’t drink. I didn’t know how to enjoy drinking with my sisters and getting excited and flustered – that’s my face (laughs). (Laughs) It wasn’t that he was bored, but rather that it was too much of an unknown world for a 19-year-old boy like Fujinami.

He will probably look back on his challenge to the majors, a world he did not know, with a smile on his face one day.