"Nippon" has seriously considered challenging the major league! Yanagida Yuki personally revealed that he will continue to stay at SoftBank and joked that "no one asked him about his FA"

Yanagida Yuki. (File photo)

[Sports Center/Comprehensive Report] SoftBank’s 38-year-old slugger Yuki Yanagita can exercise his overseas free agency rights after this season and is expected to challenge the major leagues to realize his dream. However, Yanagita personally announced in an interview today that he will not exercise his overseas FA and will stay with SoftBank. He also laughed and said: "No one asked me about FA."

Yuki Yanagida gave up his major league dream in 2019 and signed a seven-year contract with SoftBank. However, he has suffered from injuries in the past two years. He regained his star skills this season, posting 19 home runs, 70 RBIs and a batting average of 0.302. He also helped the team win the Western League championship for three consecutive years and complete Japan's first and second consecutive championship.

Starting from this off-season, after players over 35 years old exercise their FA rights, the original team no longer needs to receive compensation. Therefore, Yanagita seriously considered whether to exercise overseas FA rights. He said: "Until Saturday, I was still hesitant." However, after discussing with the team, he finally decided to stay. Talking about the key factors that prompted him to make the decision, Yanagida admitted frankly that it was because of the team's sincerity.

Next year will be Yanagida Yuki's 17th career season. He underwent neck surgery on the 4th, hoping to eradicate the long-term pain that has plagued him for eight years. In this regard, he revealed that the wound will still hurt, but that's about it.