Kodai Senga didn’t get his wish over the winter when he asked the SoftBank Hawks to allow him to pitch in the majors. But rather than dwell upon it, he remade himself over the winter with a little help from Yu Darvish.

The right-hander has come a long way since every NPB club passed on him until the Hawks selected him in the fourth round of the 2010 developmental draft. A total of 68 players were taken in the regular portion of the draft, and another 21 were taken in the developmental draft, before Senga, who was 90th out of 97 drafted that day.

You can read my interview with Senga for Kyodo News HERE.