Despite the hype surrounding his bad right ankle and missing out on this month's World Baseball Classic, Shohei Otani rates his offseason a success and remains adamant about his dual pursuits of hitting and pitching.
"Because of the perception of my not being fully fit, some might say my offseason overall was not good, but I don't believe that," Otani told Kyodo News in a February interview at the Sapporo-based Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters's spring training site in Nago, Okinawa.
"I think it was good. It's just my ankle that is not fit. Had I done nothing, I would be worse off. The practice I was able to do was definitely a positive."