There is a chance that by 2019, pitchers Yusei Kikuchi and Shohei Otani could both be major leaguers. In 2009, MLB scouts flocked to Hanamaki Higashi High School, in Iwate Prefecture, to flirt with Kikuchi, a fire-balling lefty, before returning a few years later to put a full-court press on Otani.
Both ended up staying in Japan, Kikuchi being drafted by the Seibu Lions in 2009 and the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters making a bold bid for Otani in 2012. The MLB rumblings have come back this offseason, as reports have both possibly making the move in the near future.
No one questions Otani's credentials, which, to the chagrin of opposing batters and pitchers alike, have been readily on display.
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