They Drafted Him After He Withdrew #mlb #baseball #shoheiohtani #shohei #japan

In 2012, Japan's best high school pitcher made an announcement that would shock Japan.He would skip the MPB and go straight to America.Shohei told Japanese teams that if they drafted him, he would not play and it would be a waste of a pick.So of course, every team took him off their board.Well, except for one.

Despite his request, with the first overall pick, the Nippon Hamfighters took Shohei Otani.Shohei was stunned and gave a press conference saying the chance he'd play for the Hamfighters was zero.Over the next few weeks, the team desperately pitched Shohei, emphasizing that nobody from Japan had ever played in the MLB straight out of high school.But Shohei wouldn't budge, telling the team that he wanted to make history.So the Ham Fighters running out of options gave Shohei one final pitch.If Shohei wanted to make history, they would do something unprecedented.

They would train him as a pitcher and a hitter.Something that Shohei wasn't even considering.It was an offer that Shohei couldn't turn down.Joining the Ham Fighters where he would spend five seasons, and in 2018 joining the Angels where he became the first two -way player since Babe Roos.