<h2>I thought he was going to the U.S. &#8230;&#8230;</h2>
 The Hiroshima team&#8217;s pitcher, Arien Kuri, is scheduled to hold a press conference on the afternoon of December 25 at a hotel in Osaka City.
<figure id="attachment_405822" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-405822" style="width: 1535px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="c74e9428"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/12/3d9e63b9cb7c1d0e6cc628d74ccb2907.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-405822" class="wp-caption-text"> On December 13, Kuri was interviewed by the press.</figcaption></figure>
 I wanted to challenge myself in a new place. I will compete from scratch.&#8221;
 On December 13, Guri was interviewed at Mazda Stadium.
 On December 13, Guri gave an interview at Mazda Stadium. &#8220;I finished my three-year contract this season, and on November 12, I exercised my overseas FA rights to challenge the U.S. Major League Baseball, which had been my dream. His own father is an infielder who has played in the U.S. 3A, and he had dreamed of playing across the ocean since he was a child. However, the evaluation from major league teams was tougher than he expected. It was believed that if he was offered only a minor league contract, he would abandon the move.
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 In the past, the Orix were ridiculed as &#8220;refusers&#8221; because they were turned down every time they tried to acquire FA players, but in recent years they have succeeded in acquiring major players from other teams one after another, such as Tomoya Mori (29) and Ryoma Nishikawa (30).
 The Orix won three consecutive league championships until last season, but this season their ace, Yoshinobu Yamamoto (26), left for the Dodgers, and a string of injuries has left them in fifth place. The Orix were in desperate need of pitching reinforcements.
 The team first turned their attention to Hiirita Ishikawa (32), who had left SoftBank after becoming a free agent. At first, the Giants and Yakult were rumored to be his rivals, but Lotte also entered the race. Five teams, including his old team, were competing for his services, and the terms were raised higher and higher. If the Lotte succeeded in acquiring Ishikawa, the Orix would not acquire Kuri. Therefore, it is said that they were talking to Kuri&#8217;s side behind the scenes, asking them to wait until Ishikawa&#8217;s FA had settled down.
 However, Ishikawa and his wife had a strong preference for a Tokyo-based team, and they decided to move to Lotte. Orix decided to acquire Kuri.
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 Kuri&#8217;s wife has ties to the Kansai region, and their wedding ceremony was also held in Osaka. So, some team officials whispered to me right after their marriage that he might play in the Kansai region in the future. There is also information that his wife was eager to play for a team in the Kansai region.
 The Kuri&#8217;s are now playing in the place they both wanted to play. However, a Carp alumnus expressed his mixed feelings.
 Carp fans and the team&#8217;s leadership cheered for Kuri&#8217;s move, thinking that he would follow his dream and come to the United States. However, since he has moved to another team in Japan, even though they are in a different league, many people feel that it was a betrayal. Kuri is a nice guy, and I personally want to support him. &#8230;&#8230; It is a good thing that Naoyuki Uesawa (30) made an even bigger &#8220;betrayal transfer&#8221; at the same time as Kuri&#8217;s transfer announcement, so there was not a storm of bashing. Kuri did not choose to sign a minor league contract that would have brought nothing but free money to the Carp, and even if he had been able to move to the majors, he would have chosen the Carp when he returned to Japan.
 Kuri left Hiroshima, where he had been familiar with for 11 years, and vowed to play an active role in Osaka. I hope that he will show his performance to blow away the lamentations of the fans.

 Kyodo News

 The Orix are scheduled to hold a press conference on the afternoon of December 25 at a hotel in Osaka.

Thanks to Naoyuki Uesawa, I was able to keep a low profile.&#8221;&#8230;Not for nothing did Arien Kuri decide to &#8220;betray&#8221; the Orix by transferring from Hiroshima to the Orix.

Thanks to Naoyuki Uesawa, I was able to keep a low profile.”…Not for nothing did Arien Kuri decide to “betray” the Orix by transferring from Hiroshima to the Orix.

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