When it comes to thriving in Japanese baseball for a prolonged period, the most important thing for a player to learn is how to unlearn almost everything that came before.
That was the advice DeNA BayStars slugger Neftali Soto received from former teammate Jose Lopez, who spent two seasons in Japan with the Yomiuri Giants and six more in Yokohama with the BayStars before leaving NPB after the 2020 season.
Soto is in his sixth year in Japan now and is one of the longest-tenured foreign players in NPB. His stay in NPB has included a couple of home run titles and two Best Nine selections. The key, he says, is not just adapting to life in Japan but embracing it.