In March 2020, just as Japanese baseball was grinding through its preseason behind closed doors, trying to stay a step ahead of the coronavirus pandemic, former National League All-Star reliever Takashi Saito was entering his first season as a pitching coach, a job he said he only took because new Swallows skipper Shingo Takatsu begged him.

“It was hard, because I had never prepared for it,” Saito, now in his second season as DeNA pitching coach. “I never intended to coach.”

At the start of the 2020 season, Saito would be the one to go to the mound and talk to pitchers during innings, but by mid-season that role was assumed by Hirotoshi Ishii, who had schooled Saito in the coaches’ duties since he took the job. He lasted one year with Yakult.

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