The Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters' slugging ace pitcher Shohei Otani said Monday he wants to play in the major leagues "someday" but not in the immediate future.
"There's no change in my longtime desire to go there," the 22-year-old right-hander said in the town of Makubetsu, where he visited for team-related events. "I'm playing now with thoughts of wanting to do it someday and produce results."
In 2012, when Otani was a high school student, he declared he wants to start his professional baseball career in the majors, but ended up with the Fighters in Hokkaido following a series of negotiations in which the club offered to guide him toward his dream of playing in Major League Baseball.
This past season, his fourth with the Pacific League team, Otani contributed on the mound and at the plate to help Nippon Ham clinch its first Japan Series title in 10 years.
"I don't feel that I want to go there right now," he said of MLB. "The ballclub supports me. I can feel that they let me play from my first year with the expectation that they want me to become a good player.
"In that sense, I have more work to do. I will work hard so that we can win again next year."