The Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters will hold their spring training camp ahead of the 2018 season at the Arizona Diamondbacks' facility in Scottsdale, Arizona, the team said Tuesday.
After holding a portion of their spring training at the San Diego Padres' complex in Peoria for the past two seasons, the Sapporo-based Fighters have decided to move to the $100 million Salt River Fields with a seating capacity of 11,000 and 12 practice fields.
According to the Diamondbacks, Nippon Ham will set up camp between Feb. 1 and Feb. 14.
The 2016 Japan Series champions this season missed out on a playoff berth by finishing fifth in the regular-season league standings.
"We want to raise our game to a new level in order to win back the Japan Series title, and do so in a different environment. They agreed to allow us to use their huge, cutting-edge facility," teampresident Kenso Takeda said.