Draft pick turns down SoftBank Hawks to chase his baseball dream in the US
Musashi Nagayama, 18, picked 9th in SoftBank's development draft, says he won't sign. He wants to try his luck in baseball in the United States instead.
Not every draft pick says yes. Musashi Nagayama, an 18-year-old pitcher and infielder from Wellness Okinawa High School, has said he will turn down the SoftBank Hawks.
The Hawks had taken him ninth in the "ikusei" (development-player) section of Nippon Professional Baseball's draft. Development players sign lower-tier contracts and work their way up to the main roster.
Nagayama announced his decision on Instagram on November 11. He wrote that he had thought hard about his future after the draft. In the end, his wish to take on baseball in the United States, a place he has long admired, only grew stronger.
How the club responded
The Hawks' head of player development and scouting, Tomohiro Nagai, said the club is disappointed. He added that Nagayama clearly made a firm decision after careful thought, and that the team will respect it and accept it.
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