Kodai Senga, who signed with the New York Mets this winter as a free agent, on Thursday displayed his long frustration with the SoftBank Hawks’ front office over the team’s annual refusal to post him.
In an Instagram post, Senga clarified some comments of his that were recently aired on TV, about his not being concerned about winning or losing, but the real meat was saved for the organization, whose owner, Masayoshi Son, has steadfastly refused to allow players to be posted.
Senga annually met with the Hawks officials to discuss whether a posting might be a possibility.
“I’d been asking to be posted for the past five or six years,” he wrote. “I could understand when I was refused, and could accept that. But as soon as I began asking why it was impossible, the top brass found it inconvenient to meet with me, citing their busy schedules.
“It made me dizzy that I was never able to get them to the point where they would come out and give me a reason. It was a bitter feeling I never experienced in baseball.”
About his comments on winning and losing, Senga said that he’d played for the sake of the fans and his teammates, but that his individual results didn’t concern him.
“Without the fans support, and the tremendous efforts of my teammates I wouldn’t be able to play baseball at all, so I’m grateful for them. I want so much to do well for them.”
Winning and losing and individual stats, he said are things he ignores as a way of avoiding the pitfalls of emotional highs and lows during the season.
